Information for People Working in the Youth and/or Community Sectors

 

The following is a summary of key information for workers and services in the Youth and Community Work sectors taken from the document, 'Principles and Actions For Services and People Working with Children of Parents with a Mental Illness' released in 2004 by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

Background information relating to the 'Principles and Actions' document can be accessed here.

• Support for families and children
• Mental health workers, child and family health workers and community workers (and where a risk to a child's safety has been identified, in partnership with the child protection services) can provide support for families by:
• examining and responding to the needs of the family as well as of specific members.
• recognising family needs and advocating for the provision of ongoing support and monitoring of family preservation.
• providing information about local support services and assistance to access these services if necessary.
• providing consultation assistance to mainstream parent support agencies to help them support parents with mental illness throughout the life span as the demands of the children change.

 

Community workers, mental health workers and relevant staff in the education sector can also assist in increasing the capacity of the family and it's members by:

advocating for and providing services to assist children of parents with a mental illness to remain well by having access to factors which increase resiliency such as:

• a contact person in the event of a crisis regarding their parent
• someone to talk with
• opportunities to meet adults with whom they can develop supportive links
• participation in activities where they can meet other children
• opportunities to talk about their feelings and experience
• opportunities for peer support
• opportunities for support in the community environment
• opportunities to develop coping skills and age appropriate problem solving capacities.

 

• advocating for and providing service and information to assist parents with a mental illness, their partners and family members to build on their strengths and implement strategies which increase resiliency and help their children remain well.
• advocating for and providing services and information to assist young carers of mentally ill parents to participate in social and leisure activities, education, training and employment at rates approaching those of their peers who do not have caring responsibilities.

 

Community workers can assist continuity of care of children in families affected by parental mental illness by:

• assisting parents while they are well to plan with their families for care for the children and management of related family affairs should the parents experience a relapse of their illness and be temporarily unable to care for their children.

 

Addressing grief and loss issues

• Mental health workers, community workers (and child protection workers and the justice sector where applicable) can effectively assist family members where a parents has a mental illness to minimise or address feelings of loss and grief by:
• working together to implement prevention and early intervention strategies aimed at promoting the child-parent relationship and avoiding child-parent separation.
• supporting the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and meaningful contact with both parents on a regular basis except if it has been assessed to be contrary to the child's best interests.
• planning for and assisting in the reunification of the parent and child/ren following temporary separation.
• offering and maintaining appropriate support to both the parent and child in the event of loss of primary care provision by the parent to the child/ren.
• offering strategies to promote and strengthen the child-parent relationship to the parent even if the child is not in their care.
• minimising multiple-care placements for children and planning for permanency of placement as soon as possible if this has been comprehensively assessed and judged to be necessary.
• identifying and addressing grief and loss issues of consumers, their partners or other family members/personal support people involved in the care of their children which relate to the parent's mental illness.

Information and education

Youth and community workers can facilitate access to information and education for children of parents with a mental illness by:

• encouraging and supporting parents to speak to their children about their illness and being aware of materials and resources to assist them to do so.