Child and Family Health Workers - Key Questions to Ask Parents/Carers/Partners

Before proceeding, it's important to stress that parental mental illness may not adversely affect the children and many people with a mental illness do an excellent job of parenting. However, there are four key areas to consider in supporting a parent with a mental illness and their offspring:

• identification of risk factors (for parent and child)
• protection from harm for the child
• care of the family (parent/s, child/ren and others)
• information (for the child/ren and their care-givers)

IDENTIFICATION - Assessment Considerations Does the person have responsibilities or contact with dependant children and what age are they?

• Ascertain any support needs and strengths the person may have in fulfilling their parenting role.
• If the person with the mental illness is separated from their child/ren, explore possible grief and loss issues and refer for counselling as appropriate.

Is the person pregnant or planning to conceive?

PROTECTION

If you have concerns about the safety and well-being of a child/young person as a result of the parental mental health problem and/or of any treatment approaches contact your local child protection service.

PREVENTION & CARE

What support needs does the parent/family have?

• Work with family members, community service providers (and child protection agencies as required) to support families to improve their capacity to support, protect and care for their child/ren if required.
• This may include
• domestic support (Phone the Commonwealth Carelink Centres on 1800 052 222 for information about local support services)
• childcare or respite support (Child Care Access Hotline 1800 670 305)
• parental support groups
• programs to assist parents to develop skills
• transport assistance
• counselling to support the partnership of parents
• financial support to enable care and protection of the child (eg for childcare).
• carer's support (Commonwealth Carers Resource Centre Phone: 1800 242636).

Do they think their children have any specific support, safety or socialization needs such as peer support groups, respite or counselling? (See specific age related information)

• Work collaboratively with the family other agencies (and the school as required) to develop a safety plan for any child or young person assessed to be at risk of neglect or maltreatment.

Have they a care plan in place for the child/ren should they become unwell or require hospitalisation?

• Assist the parents to plan whilst the parent is well for continuity of care for the child (including continuity of schooling) if/when the parent experiences a relapse of their illness and/or requires hospitalisation or separation from their child due to other reasons. (An example child Care Plan can be found on the COMIC website: http://www.howstat.com/ comic) A Western Australian version of this package is available from the WA Office of Mental Health website, Resources section http://www.mental. health.wa.gov.au/one/aboutus_resources.asp

NOTE: Affirm the parenting strengths of the person. Reassure them if necessary that parenting is a challenge for all parents. Acknowledge that many of the issues of parents with mental illness are generic to all parents and others are specific to the situation of living with mental illness.

INFORMATION

Does the person have enough information about the possible implications of their mental illness, treatment and/or co-morbid factors (e.g. substance abuse) on their parenting and (where relevant) on breastfeeding?

If not, assist the parent/s to seek this information.

Have they discussed the mental illness and its implications or treatment implications with their child?

• Encourage the parent or caregiver to discuss the mental illness and it's affect with their child/ren (at a level they can understand). Encourage the family to seek further information through local mental health services, non-government agencies, mental health support organizations or the SANE website http://www.sane.org/
• A pamphlet called 'Family Talk' has been developed for families in which a parent of dependent children has a mental illness. Also available is a list of books suitable for children of different ages which may be used to assist children in the understanding of their parent's mental illness.