Edie’s Personal Story

My interest in helping families affected by mental illness stems from my own experience.

My mother was very kind and generous to me. However, she depended on me to help her cope with my often-absent father’s depression. When he wasn’t working, you could find my father at the local fire hall bar. When he did come home he wasn’t drunk or abusive, just distant and withdrawn. My mother and I didn’t think of him as mentally ill. We thought he was just a little weird like the rest of his family.

Unable to cope with my father’s mental illness, my older brothers left home as soon as they could, leaving me alone with my lonely mother and absent father. To make matters worse, my grandfather (my mother’s father), who had paranoid schizophrenia, came to live with us when my grandmother died. I knew he was different, but it really helped when my mother told me that he was sick and that’s what made him act the way he did. Although I didn’t trust or like him because of how strangely he behaved, I understood his illness and that helped me to cope with his behavior, even when he said mean things to me.

So how did I get to where I am today?

It was through the kindness and stream of support I received from others, including doctors, friends, uncles and siblings that freed me up to be a child, to focus more on myself.

It was because of this support that I decided to dedicate my life to helping troubled families. So I applied to Hahnemann University, where I received a master’s degree in Family Therapy.

One of my first jobs was working on a cancer ward helping families of cancer patients. These families needed information, hope and someone to understand how sad, scared and angry they were. Because my father had already died of cancer, I was able to empathize with the families of the patients on the ward.

Soon after my work on the cancer ward, I was offered a job in a community mental health center. I quickly noticed that many of the families of the patients were either ignored or blamed for their family member’s illness. (At that time it was a popular belief that families caused mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Now we know mental illnesses are brain disorders that can happen to people in the best of families.) After working with many of the patients and their families, I realized that everyone, both the patient and his or family, is affected by mental illness. It was then that I started treating the families of my patients the same way I had treated the families on the cancer ward on the cancer ward - by offering them information, compassion, and hope.

This was a new idea in 1982. It was so new that the Philadelphia Office of Mental Health funded a colleague of mine and me to start a new program dedicated to educating and supporting families of people with mental illness. Since 1985 this program has served parents, spouses, adult siblings and adult children of adults with mental illness. It has been such rewarding work. The hundreds of Philadelphia area families who have been helped by our Coping Skills Workshops and consultations have brought meaning to the suffering I went through as a child.

However, my work is far from complete. Now I want to expand our services and help the children and adolescents who are suffering in families affected by mental illness. My goal is to reach not only the children of people who are diagnosed and receiving treatment for their mental illness, I also want to reach the thousands of children whose parents don’t know or admit they have a mental illness and don’t get treatment.

So when you call or email us here at the TEC Family Center, you know you are reaching people who understand. Even if the person with the mental illness is not your parent, but a brother, sister or other relative, we understand how painful and difficult coping can be. We at the TEC Family Center are members of an experienced team that’s ready and willing to help you and your family. Remember, you’re not alone anymore.

Contact:
email: Edie Mannion
telephone: 215-751-1800 ext. 233

This page last updated: September 10, 2000.