I am 59 and suffer from bi-polar depression.  This year it has become
such that I live almost completely withdrawn from anyone and do little
other than sleep and work at a night job as a convenience store clerk.
 I have an MBA from a good school and decades of middle management
experience at Fortune 100 companies, however, the inability to
reengage in the workforce and a recent bankruptcy has helped catalyze
this most recent depression episode.

My request is to find a local free group therapy or individual therapy
or some free assistance to help me deal with this disease and gain
some footing in my life.  Can you recommend a heath, civic, or
religious organization or any other type of assistance that I might
look into that would be available locally, and free or at very low
cost?  I live in Richmond, Virginia.

Hello,

You may want to start with the Richmond Behavioral Healthcare
Authority, the community service board for the city:

RICHMOND Behavioral Healthcare Authority
City of Richmond
Lundi Martin, Executive Director
107 South 5th Street, Richmond 23219
Phone: (804) 819-4000
Fax: (804) 819-4081
804-819-4100 (crisis)
email: rbha@richmond.infi.net

Source: Mental Health Association of Virginia
(http://www.mhav.org/reguide5.htm).

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance has a support group in
Richmond. Redistribution restrictions prevent me from putting the
contact information down here, but you can see it yourself at
(http://www.ndmda.org/supportmap_results.asp?id=VA). Or visit this
unofficial page (http://www.thewindsofchange.org/virginia.html), which
also has an address for the group.

You can ask the DBSA (formerly NDMDA) about getting help at
(http://www.ndmda.org/needhelp.html).

Also, the National Association for the Mentally Ill has a depression
and manic depression support group that meets at the Tucker Pavilion
in Richmond. See (http://www.namivirginia.org/central.htm).

The NAMI has a helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI, which can put you in touch
with people who can help you in your area. See
(http://www.nami.org/helpline/helpline.html).

Good luck.

---

Clarification of Answer by mwalcoff-ga on 30 Aug 2002 15:50 PDT

Search strategy:

Directory search: bipolar
http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Mental_Health/Disorders/Mood/Bipolar_Disorder/?tc=1

bipolar support group Virginia
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=bipolar+support+group+Virginia

Richmond Virginia health
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Richmond+Virginia+health

Thanks for the very complete response.  It is remarkable that such a
service can exist that can provide such good research (in less than an
hour in this instance!!) at such a resonable charge.  Thank you and
know this is much appreciated and illustrates how wonderful the
Internet can be.

Dear Amsterdam,

In addition to the groups found by my colleage mwalcoff, you might
want to investigate the following~

Richmond Depressive And Manic Depressive Support Group:

For people who suffer or have suffered from chronic, manic or bipolar
depression. The group meets the first Tuesday of each month from 7:30
to 9 p.m. in Kraus Auditorium of CJW Chippenham Medical Center. Family
and friends of people with mood disorder also meet the first Tuesday
of each month in Tucker Gym at 7 p.m. and join the other group at 8
p.m.

For information, call CJW Chippenham Medical Center, (804)323-8846

http://www.chippenhammed.com/CustomPage.asp?guidCustomContentID=8F2D0188-2627-11D4-81D9-00508B1249D5

You may also want to consider contacting the Laurie Mitchell
Employment Center, in Alexandria. I know that's quite a distance, but
it sounds to me as if it might be worth your while. This is an
employment center that specializes in helping people like yourself to
re-enter the workforce. Here's an excerpt from Laurie Mitchell
Center's Web site:

The mission of the Laurie Mitchell Employment Center is to aid mental
health consumers in their pursuits for meaningful employment. If you
would like more information on the Center's services, call us at (703)
461-3886 or send us an email at lmec@ourpeoplework.org. We are a
consumer run and consumer driven organization.

Our mailing address is:
Laurie Mitchell Employment Center 
6295 Edsall Road, Suite 175 
Alexandria, VA 22312 
Our hours of operation are:
Monday through Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

http://www.angelfire.com/va/employmentlmec/

Best of fortune to you from a fellow soldier in the battle against
bipolar illness.

~pinkfreud

There is new hope on the horizon. im a manic and have had 5 break
downs but im slowly getting off my medicine by using a new nutient
called Empower produced  by the truehope.com company out of Canada.
This stuff works it really works for the first time in my life my mind
is stable.  All i can say is investigate it the drugs will never hold
you together for the long run.