support groups

[Guest guest]

HI All,

I have a question (several, actually).

1. Does anyone here attend a support group for parents of kids with OCD?

If you do and you have any info you could share regarding how it

started, how it is moderated / run, frequency, etc. I would appreciate

it.

2. Is it realistic to think of starting a support group? I love this

mailing list, but there are times I would like to just sit down with

some of you, enjoy a cup of tea and actually talk face to face. Since

that isn't practical <g> I have been trying to find options locally.

Unfortunately, the closest one meets once a month and is in Seattle,

which isn't quite as convenient as I would like it to be.

The other night, while attending a girl scout overnight, I spent some

early morning time chatting with another leader...and somewhere in the

course of this conversation it came out that both of our daughters have

OCD! While sharing stories (and boy, do some of these kids share similar

traits!) it really struck me how important it was to be able to talk to

other parents openly and honestly about our kids. I would imagine there

are enough kids with OCD in our area alone to make a support group work.

If anyone has experience in starting one and how one goes about that

process please let me know. I know that some groups have a trained

moderator (therapist, for example) but if that isn't possible I wonder

if it is ok just to offer support...and acknowledge upfront that we are

parents, not trained professionals, that we would not presume to tell

parents what they " should " do, but we could point them in the direction

of the professionals who could.

What do you all think?

Robin