ABSTRACT
Few problems are more challenging to a family’s sense of well-being and stability than those that deal with mental health issues. Unfortunately, “because mental health problems are often invisible, their pervasiveness is not well appreciated, and because they are associated with a stigma, they often go untreated” (Segrin & Flora, 2005, p. 301). Depression, for example, is “amazingly underdiagnosed” (O’Connor, 1997, p. 19) and often not taken seriously. Untreated depression costs the United States between $30 and 44 billion per year in medical expenses, work absenteeism, and lost productivity (Hurst, 2005). Depression is second only to cancer in terms of economic impact, and the number of deaths from suicide annually equals the number of deaths each year from AIDS (O’Connor, 1997). Although depression and related mental illnesses (e.g., adjustment disorder, bipolar disorder, and dysthymic disorder) touch many of today’s families, family members often feel ill-equipped to handle the stressful situations that arise and seek advice and support from sources external to the family.
