About Us

The main goal of DBSA Chapters’ support groups is to improve the lives of people living with mood disorders. We come together in support groups to share our experiences, learn from one another and gain strength and hope, all with the goal of improving our lives. Participants make the group a safe place by fostering a supportive, trustworthy, respectful, non‐judgmental and nurturing atmosphere. Participants use information they’ve gained from others at the meeting to make their own judgments about correct strategies for themselves.

 

About the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance

Our Vision

DBSA envisions wellness for people living with depression and bipolar disorder.

Our Mission

DBSA provides hope, help, support, and education to improve the lives of people who have mood disorders.

Our Values

1. Community—DBSA creates the opportunity for meaningful lives by compassionately engaging with individuals and providing peer-led support groups, educational materials, and wellness tools that focus on resiliency, achievement, creativity, and connection.

2. Inspiration—DBSA celebrates peers’ accomplishments, including those of the many talented, successful individuals recognized by the public for their contributions to the world.

3. Wisdom—DBSA advances learning through research and experience while promoting a transformative understanding of mental health through wide, timely dissemination of information about the latest treatments, wellness practices, and lived experiences.

4. Responsibility—DBSA advocates for the right of peers to choose their own paths to mental, emotional, and physical wellness while promoting structures and practices that advance whole health and accessible care for everyone.

Who We Are

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is the leading peer-directed national organization focusing on the two most prevalent mental health conditions, depression and bipolar disorder, which affect more than 21 million Americans, account for 90% of the nation’s suicides every year, and cost $23 billion in lost workdays and other workplace losses.

DBSA’s peer-based, wellness-oriented, and empowering services and resources are available when people need them, where they need them, and how they need to receive them—online 24/7, in local support groups, in audio and video casts, or in printed materials distributed by DBSA, our chapters, and mental health care facilities across America.

Through more than 700 support groups and nearly 300 chapters, DBSA reaches millions of people each year with in-person and online peer support; current, readily understandable information about depression and bipolar disorder; and empowering tools focused on an integrated approach to wellness.

What Makes DBSA Unique

DBSA is led by and created for individuals living with a mood disorder, and that experience informs everything that we do.

What’s Different About DBSA

• Peer-led: More than half of the DBSA staff and board members live with a mood disorder and all DBSA support groups are facilitated by peers.
• Targeted: DBSA focuses solely on depression & bipolar disorder.
• Nationally recognized: DBSA gets national recognition for Peer Specialist training services.
• Innovative: DBSA provides leading-edge, interactive online resources.
• Wellness-centered: DBSA informs, empowers, supports, and inspires individuals to achieve the lives they want to lead.

DBSA Affiliated Websites

• www.FacingUs.org (offers interactive, personal wellness tools)
• www.DBSAlianza.org (provides Spanish-language resources) (provee recursos en español)
• www.WeSearchTogether.org (offers information on mental health research and access to studies)

Related articles

• Bipolar seems to be the new buzz word (talkingaboutbipolar.wordpress.com)
• Homeland and Bipolar Disorder: How TV Characters Are Changing the Way We View Mental Illness (healthland.time.com)
• Happiness with a Mood Disorders (lynndllcurtis.wordpress.com)