At the July Sanctuary meeting, we watched a DVD from the series “If Only We Had Known”, which discusses how having someone in the family diagnosed with BPD affects all the members in the family

Malcolm Robinson, a Family Therapist at Bower Place, spoke to Sanctuary about having a parent with BPD and how that might affect a child. Also what parents and grandparents can do to help.

Dr. Robin L. Kissell MD is the Director of the Borderline Personality Disorder Initiative, Semel Institute, UCLA.   

At our March meeting, we listened to a recording of her excellent talk:

‘Understanding and Helping Loved Ones with Borderline Personality Disorder’

Kristy Acres who spoke about carer inclusion in hospital emergency departments.

Kirsty Burns works in the Short stay Unit (Mental Health) at Flinders Medical Centre . She explained what happens in the Emergency Department when we take our family member there, who gets to see them to assess them and how do they get to see a psychiatrist, if at all. To help us understand how the system works and whether our expectations are unrealistic to fit in with hospital protocol and reduce some of the frustrations we experience.

What makes caring for a loved one diagnosed with BPD a unique experience? BPD is different from other mental illnesses such as Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia or depression etc. in that these illnesses are treatable with medication (as long as the person takes their meds of course!. BPD is different in that meds don’t help the BPD issues like abandonment, rage and self-harm among of course others.

Dr Martha Kent discussed how the new BPD Centre of Excellence (CoE) might work and all the different issues that need to be considered.

This was a “just us” meeting, to be with people who “get it”, and learn which behaviours are not simply bad behaviour but are an effect of Borderline Personality Disorder.