Kinlantern

For families

About Kinlantern

Who made this, how it was checked, and what it is not.

4 min read Last reviewed:

Kinlantern is a free educational website for families. It was built by a medical student, not by a hospital or a company. It exists because families often want to read about a diagnosis more slowly, and in their own language, than a single appointment allows.

Everything here restates what established national organizations already publish for families. Every claim on every page carries a numbered link to the source it came from, and the full list sits at the foot of each page. Kinlantern is not a substitute for your family member’s own clinician.

The condition pages are intended for review by a licensed psychiatrist before this site is shared or promoted. That review is not finished yet. Until it is, please read those pages as a careful summary by a student.

What this site is

Kinlantern explains common psychiatric diagnoses in plain language for the people who live with, love, and worry about the person who received one. Each guide follows the same seven steps, from what the words mean to what to ask at the next appointment.

Two pages cover two hard stretches of time: a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and the first weeks after coming home.

The site is written for parents, partners, siblings, adult children, and close friends. It is not written for patients, and it is not written for clinicians.

Who made it and how it was checked

Kinlantern was written by a medical student with an interest in psychiatry and in making published family material easier to read at home.

The condition pages have not yet been reviewed by a licensed psychiatrist. That review is intended before the site is shared or promoted. Until it is complete, please read those pages as a careful summary by a student, not as a clinical document.

Every page was written by reading the family-facing pages of established organizations, then explaining the same ideas in simpler words. The organizations are the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine, the American Psychiatric Association, and, for children and teens, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).123456

Nothing on this site is copied from those sources. Every page lists the sources it draws on and the date it was last reviewed. If a page ever disagrees with one of its sources, the source is right and the page needs fixing.

What this site is not

Kinlantern is not medical advice. It does not know your family member, and it cannot tell you what is wrong or what to do.

  • It does not diagnose. There are no quizzes or symptom checkers, and there never will be.
  • It does not recommend medicines or doses. When it mentions a type of medicine, it is only so you recognize the word when the psychiatrist uses it.
  • It does not replace the treatment team. Every page sends you back to your family member’s own psychiatrist, therapist, or clinic. That is on purpose.
  • It does not take sides in questions of faith or culture. It tries to show where the medical view and a family’s values can sit together.

If you are ever unsure whether something on this site applies to your family, the answer is to ask the clinician who does know your family member.

Privacy

Kinlantern does not collect any information about you. There are no accounts, no forms, no cookies for tracking, no advertising, and no analytics that record who you are. The only thing the site stores is which language you chose, and that stays in your own browser.

Reading this site leaves no record with us. If you want to keep a page, print it or save it. You do not have to sign up for anything.

Languages

Kinlantern is written in English, Spanish, and Arabic. The Spanish and Arabic versions are full translations, not automatic ones. Each was checked against resources in that language from the same organizations, and each page lists those resources where they exist.

If you find a translation that reads badly or seems wrong, please tell us so it can be fixed.

If you need help right now

If someone may be in danger, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Both are free and open all day and night. If there is immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

For anything less urgent, call your family member’s psychiatrist or clinic. If your family does not yet have a clinician, the finding care page explains where to look.

If you need help right now

  • Call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Free, 24 hours a day. Press 2 for Spanish. Call for an interpreter in more than 240 other languages.
  • Text HOME to 741741 Crisis Text Line. Free, 24 hours a day. Text service is in English and Spanish.
  • Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if there is immediate danger.

For anything less urgent, call your family member's psychiatrist or clinic.

Sources

Every numbered mark in this guide points to one of the sources below. Kinlantern restates what these organizations publish for families in plainer words. It does not copy them, and it adds nothing of its own. Follow any link to read the original.

Last reviewed: