Can you imagine what life can be like for children and young people who may find themselves in the role of mental health carer?
October is Mental Health Month in NSW, so we're taking this opportunity to raise awareness and raise funds to help children and young people who live in families where someone is affected by mental illness.
Even where there is support and love in these families, the children and young people involved often still need specialised support themselves to help deal with what is happening in their lives.
Central Coast ARAFMI is a community organisation and charity with over 35 experience providing support and services to mental health carers of all ages and their families. ARAFMI is the Association
of Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill, an incorporated association first established on the Central Coast in 1976. Our website is www.ccarafmi.org.au
Young ARAFMI is a program for children and young people who have a mother, father, sister, brother or other family member with mental health problems.
Young ARAFMI offers:
• Kids Connecting – a weekly group meeting during each school term
• Sand play and art therapy
• Counselling around mental health issues
• Telephone support
• Information and education about mental health issues
• Advocacy
• Fun outings during school holidays, and
• Contact and referral to other services.
Young ARAFMI has been running for 15 years on the Central Coast (of NSW). Our current Young ARAFMI worker, Marion, has been with the program for more than six years. Working 25 hours a week, Marion has assisted more
than 120 children and young people over the past 2 years.
Central Coast ARAFMI’s crowd funding campaign aims to raise funds for another Young ARAFMI worker to run programs for the children and young people for an extra day each week.
