National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Southeast Wisconsin, Inc, was awarded a grant to adapt and expand the capacity of the “Compassion Resilience Toolkit,” a resource for parents and caregivers supporting youth with mental health needs. In partnership with Rogers Behavioral Health, this project established caregiver groups and facilitator training to create psychologically safe spaces for skill development and resilience building. As a result, parents and caregivers became better equipped to reduce compassion fatigue and increase their ability to support their children facing mental health challenges as they move through and beyond the pandemic. In addition, the team partnered with Milwaukee’s CORE El Centro to recruit and train Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers as group facilitators.
The Challenge
COVID-19 brough widespread mental health challenges, with significant long-term consequences for children due to increased parental stress, anxiety and depression. When parents experience compassion fatigue, they may struggle to recognize or respond to their children’s mental health needs. This can increase the likelihood that children will face mental health challenges of their own, along with a greater risk of learning and behavioral problems and reduced economic mobility later in life. Before the pandemic, Rogers Behavioral Health collaborated with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Initiative for Stigma Elimination to develop Compassion Resilience Toolkits tailored for schools, human service providers and caregivers. As mental health needs surged during the pandemic, these resources became more critical than ever.
Project Goals
The project’s vision centered on empowering parents to effectively support children and youth facing mental health challenges in the post-COVID environment, while also caring for their own well-being. The project aimed to achieve three goals:
Build parent peer capacity to facilitate groups that promote building compassion resilience of parents.
Provide a resource for Latinx families that is inclusive of their experience and culture.
Engage six partner organizations in the sustained use of resources beyond the grant period, with ongoing support from NAMI Southeast WI and Roger Behavioral Health through staff commitment and integration into strategic priorities.
Results
As a result of this award, NAMI Southeast Wisconsin and Rogers Community Learning and Engagement trained over 100 facilitators in the Compassion Resilience Toolkit for Parents/Caregivers across Southeastern Wisconsin and six facilitators in North Central Wisconsin. These facilitators are now equipped to lead peer support groups that help caregivers manage stress and reduce compassion fatigue. In addition, two individuals were certified as trainers for the Spanish-language curriculum. Lastly, 140 individuals attended Compassion Resilience Toolkit classes, which helped them gain strategies to manage the emotional toll of caregiving. Participants reported feeling more empowered, connected and equipped to support both their own well-being and the mental health of the youth in their care.
Lasting Impact
The team takes pride in exceeding expectations for facilitator training numbers. An especially meaningful outcome was the certification of trainers in the Spanish-language curriculum — an achievement they had not initially anticipated. This milestone ensures the toolkit will continue to be available to Spanish-speaking communities and presented in a way that is both culturally relevant and grounded in cultural humility.
