Support Group

The Laguna Beach Community Clinic is offering a support group for men over 25 years old that meets Thursdays from 6:15 to 8:15 p.m. The discussion is based on group requests and needs. Topics include: self-appraisal; origins and implications of dependency; sexuality, identity and anxiety; sources of power and rage, and the many profiles of the false self. The group is facilitated by Jerome K. Muller and is limited to 10 participants. Call (714) 494-9429 for information.

A new support group is being formed to help men who lost homes in the October fire and are feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of rebuilding their lives. "I think it's just a little more difficult for men to reach out and access any mental health services," said David Bishop, an outreach supervisor for Laguna Cares, which is forming the group.

They call themselves survivors and they gather every month or so in towns throughout the West, strangers bound together by a loss so deep and so unfathomable that some cannot even speak of it. Their support group here is known as Heartbeat, and when they arrive, 20 or 25 strong, at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month, they clear away the tables in the conference room, place the folding chairs in a tight circle and await the few words from LaRita Archibald that will open the meeting.

The Photography, Film and Video Council. The council's chief mission is to educate its members in the photographic arts and raise money to acquire photographs or related media for the museum's permanent collection. Council membership, open to museum members only, requires an annual contribution of $125 per individual or $225 per couple. One hundred dollars from each membership will go toward the annual purchase of one or more works of art, to be chosen by council members under the guidance of the museum's curatorial staff.

W. Dorr Legg, 89, founder of ONE, Inc., among the oldest gay and lesbian support organizations in the country. The group, with headquarters on Country Club Drive in West Los Angeles, offers therapy, counseling and referrals to the gay community. It also provides educational and job placement programs, one of a very few umbrella organizations for gays when it first started in the early 1950s.

Jean Harlow or Sheena of the Jungle? Kathy Thompson of Corona del Mar is determined to wear one of those get-ups when she celebrates Oscar Night at Planet Hollywood on Monday. "We're having a 'come as your favorite movie star' party," says Thompson, founder of the A-Team, a support group of Share Our Selves (a service organization for the homeless and impoverished). "Only one problem. I have a costume for Sheena, but she's a television character. I can't figure out how to fake that."

Older diabetics who learn self-care measures and participate in support groups are less depressed, less stressed and rate their quality of life higher than those who don't take such steps, according to a new study. Researchers tested the three approaches on diabetic men receiving care at a Chicago diabetes clinic. One group attended six weekly sessions to learn about self-care, nutrition and other information about diabetes mellitus.

Every first and third Tuesday of the month, they gather at the hospital gazebo to seek comfort, to talk and to confide in others like themselves. They belong to Mothers of AIDS Patients (MAP), a support group for mothers of those who have died of or have been found to have AIDS or AIDS-related complex. "People in this group will not turn them away," said Patricia A. Poynter, a registered nurse and one of the organizers.

As the threat of war nears, both peace groups and support groups for soldiers stationed in the Persian Gulf are stepping up their activities in San Diego. Events range from appearances by Country Joe McDonald, a '60s singer and peace activist, to flashlight vigils and a cookie bake-off for troops. Increased activities began Friday as the U.N. Security Council's Tuesday deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait approaches. At Rep.

Emily B. Visher, a psychologist whose co-founding of a national advocacy and support group for stepfamilies was driven in part by her own "Brady Bunch"-style remarriage, died of cancer Oct. 5 at her Walnut Creek home. She was 83. Visher and her husband, John, founded the Stepfamily Assn. of America in 1979 after 20 years of experience, not always successful, combining eight children from previous marriages into their family.