Advocate for Mental Health
What would happen to your world today if you or your loved one were diagnosed with a serious mental illness?
- Do you know the warning signs?
- Would you know how or where to go for help?
- Would you be prepared to devote your life to that person while they are undergoing an attack or living with the illness?
- Can you even afford to help them while living at your current living standards?
These are some hard questions to think about and hopefully, most of us will never have to deal with mental illness. But the sad fact is, there are several others who do and will have to deal with this illness sometime in our lives.
Apparel Pattern Making is owned and operated by Traci Anderson. A wife, mother, and a patternmaker with a graduate degree and years of experience within the apparel industry field. As an internally high-strung, anxious individual that has struggled with anxiety her whole life. Plus, also has a sibling who lives with schizophrenia. She knows firsthand the struggles and hardships its takes for those who live with mental health issues and illnesses.
For many years, her mom cared for her brother throughout his illness. But suddenly Traci found them both falling into her hands overnight due to her mother having a stroke. So she had to move them closer to her home so that she could locate housing/support for her brother and continue caring for her mother as she recovered.
After several months, of her brother living with her family. She finally was able to locate housing for him. And if it wasn’t for the mental health contacts & support from their own hometown, NAMI, family/friends support, and some counseling of her own. She might not have been able to handle the impact of this illness and meet her brother’s & mother’s needs.
Today, she continues to support her brother who lives in a care home, and her mother who lives in senior housing. While also enjoying her time with them. But now knowing her interaction limitations better. She can sustain her abilities to continue supporting them, her own family, and herself, and continue to enjoy the life she was given.
Therefore, she continues to advocate through her home sewing pattern line to educate, support, and get the resources out to prevent these illnesses from digressing further in our lives as it is near and dear to her heart.
For more information on mental health issues and advice on where to start, visit the website links below for more information and resources.
NAMI=National Association of Mental Illness