THEY came for Valerie's teenage son at midnight and led him away in handcuffs. For three years, the middle-class Darlington mother had watched her son's mental health steadily deteriorating. His illness - an acute form of schizophrenia which has a very high suicide rate - came completely out of the blue and caused havoc at home.

"His illness meant he was totally paranoid about everyone. He couldn't even trust his own parents," says Valerie, who has had to become something of an expert on mental illness.

Finally, his behaviour deteriorated so badly that doctors called to the scene decided to have him forcibly restrained and committed to a mental hospital. "He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and taken away at midnight in handcuffs, it was absolutely horrific - it often is for people," says Valerie.

"If you hadn't been through something like this you couldn't imagine what it is like and the worst thing was that nobody told us anything about your rights or the choices you have," she adds.

"We were completely lost for nine months and desperate for information. Things were getting worse and it seemed that nobody wanted to help us."

After a while, her son became more stable and he was allowed to return home on leave, but the day-to-day difficulties and crises continued to rock the family.

"It was good that he was back with us again but it was still very difficult. When he turned 18, he was trying to have us excluded from his care because he thought we were part of the plot against him," she says.

Because of his illness, he was convinced that he was being actively persecuted on account of his left-wing political views.

"It is really awful for them, you are watching them but you can't do anything, you can't explain things to them. To be in a situation where you think you are not safe anywhere, even in your own home, is a terrible thing," Valerie adds.

What made their plight even more unbearable was the feeling that the family's views were not being taken seriously by the professionals looking after her son and the fact that very little information was forthcoming about the choices open to them.

"People say to you, we are the professionals, we know best, when actually they don't have any experience of the person they are talking about. That is extremely worrying to me."

What made a crucial difference was when she stumbled across the Darlington Carers Support Project, part of the range of services offered by the Darlington Association on Disability. It helped her discover more about schizophrenia and link up with other carers.

"At the time I would have given my eye teeth to be in touch with the support group, I just didn't know there was one. I only found out recently, it took me two years," says Valerie.

The town centre-based project is funded by Darlington Social Services and has been going for around eight years. As its name suggests, it was set up to provide guidance, information and support for people who are caring for relatives, friends or neighbours. One of its most successful ventures is bringing together carers of all kinds.

Pat Thompson, a carer support worker who shares her job with colleague Jackie Hiles, reckons that the group is in touch with about 800 carers.

While it cannot provide practical support, such as respite care, it can point people in the right direction.

"We don't provide practical help, we would signpost the carer to the appropriate service. We try to be a listening ear, providing information, giving carers the chance to have a say in the development of services."

It has also helped organise carer support groups where people can meet with others who are in a similar situation. One is specifically for carers who are looking after someone with mental health problems.

"We are in touch with about 40 mental health carers but we would like to be in touch with more of them. We can go with carers to doctors' appointments, case meetings and case reviews," says Pat.

Apart from providing a forum for visiting speakers the group gives members access to organised exercise and relaxation sessions.

She is particularly excited about a new development - A Guide For Carers - which is officially launched by The Northern Echo's editor, Peter Barron, today.

The guide, which builds on an earlier leaflet, is packed with practical information for people who care for those with mental health problems: where you can go for help, knowing your rights under the law and reassurance that carers are not on their own.

"It's in simple English with no jargon. We are going to distribute it far and wide in Darlington but we would be thrilled if it could be adapted for a larger area," says Pat.

The bill for producing the new guide has been picked up by the County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust, the mental health care provider for the area. Darlington Mind's White Dove computer project actually produced the guide.

And Valerie is in no doubt that the guide will help people. "If I had had a copy of that guide when my son was first ill I think it would have made a huge difference because it points you in the right direction for everything you need. One of the most important things about the guide is that it tells you how to stand up for yourself, because that is the difficult thing. It would encourage you to assert yourself a bit more," she says.

But the real challenge will be to ensure it gets to the right people.

"That is the crunch. There were leaflets and guides lying around the hospital that could have done me some good but nobody told me, they stayed in the cupboard," she says.

Since joining the group and contacting the National Schizophrenia Fellowship Valerie came to the conclusion that her son would be better off in another part of the country. She succeeded in transferring him across the Pennines to Lancashire where he is responding well to an innovative course of treatment.

"He is so much better, he is now living on his own and going to college," says Valerie, who hopes the guide will also correct cliched views of mental health problems.

"The press coverage of schizophrenia is always about mad axe murderers but the statistics amount to nothing compared to how people behave when they have had too much to drink," she says.

* Peter Barron launches A Guide For Carers at the Kings Head Hotel, Priestgate, Darlington, at 10am today.

* Darlington Carers Support Project is based in the offices of the Darlington Association on Disability next to the Dolphin Centre. A help-line is available from 9.30am to 4pm weekdays on (01325) 357533.