Home > Get Info > COPMI materials

COPMI Materials

The following materials are for use by families where a parent has a mental illness, including their carers & supporters...

All documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. Get Acrobat Reader free. Please allow a few moments for the items to download. Many of these materials have been translated into various languages.

>Family Focus DVD

>COPMI Brochure

>Booklets

>Teaching resources

>Inpatient and Community Mental Health Service Checklists

>Information Sheets

>Care Plans

>Posters

*Paper copies of these resource items can also be ordered.

>Order paper copies here

>View translations here

DVD resource

Family Focus DVD

This DVD is for parents with depression and/or anxiety and focuses on talking to their children about these illnesses. This has been proven to build child resilience to developing problems of their own, and strengthening the family unit.

Order DVD here

COPMI Brochure

This brochure is designed to be printed on two sides of an A4 sheet and folded in half. You will need to adjust your printer "Properties" tab before printing for this to occur. If you require help in printing to brochure format please contact us.

Booklets

Principles and Actions for Services and People Working with Children of Parents with a Mental Illness

This key document provides guidance for both organisations and individuals across a wide range of jurisdictions. It is the culmination of an extensive review of the literature and of consultations with parents who have a mental illness, their carers and children, service providers and experts.

The Best For Me and My Baby

This booklet was developed with and for women with a mental health problem or mental illness - and their partners - who are thinking about having a baby, are new parents or are about to have a baby. It encourages health professionals and parents to work together to manage mental health during pregnancy and early parenthood and provides tips for parents and for supporting family and friends.

Family Talk

Developed in partnership with families and young people, this booklet contains tips and information for parents with mental health problems, their children, other family members and support people. Topics include answering questions, discussing things as a family and planning for times when the parent may be unwell. Also included are 'press out' cards for children and young people to use to record their important phone numbers.

Piecing the Puzzle Together: Raising young people when mental illness is part of your life

This booklet is for people living with a mental health problem or mental illness, whose children are aged between 2 and 7 years. It’s also for partners, family and friends. It contains helpful ideas about being the best parent you can when you’re not as well as you’d like to be and ways to support your child’s development during their special early years. Produced in consultation with consumers, carers, workers, academics and policy makers. A detachable Care Plan Folder is also available.

Helping To Piece The Puzzle Together

An Early Childhood Worker supplement to Piecing the Puzzle Together. An associated resource to assist early childhood workers who work with children and families where a parent has a mental illness or mental health problem. It was produced with input from staff in child care centres and junior primary education. Additional support resources for educators can also be found in the 'Workers Resources/'Early Childhood' section of this website.

Teaching resources

Saving Francesca: Ideas for Secondary School Teachers

This set of information was developed as part of the Children Of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) initiative's commitment to supporting teachers in developing student awareness of mental illness, reducing stigma, and increasing 'help seeking' behaviour.

Just Being Me

*Available online only

This teaching resource was developed in conjunction with MindMatters. It offers a package of ideas for middle school teachers using Helicopter Man or Lochie Leonard, Legend as class texts.

Potential outcomes for students include increased understanding of mental illness and its affect on families, reduction in associated stigma and increased help-seeking behaviours.

Inpatient and Community Mental Health Service Checklists

Check how family-friendly your inpatient or community mental health services are by comparing them with the COPMI Family Friendly Checklists. These checklists have been developed from information provided by parents with a mental illness, their partners, support people and children as well as service providers.

Information Sheets

Support for children

Info for dads

Care Plans

The whole family will feel better if they know what to do should a crisis occur – and putting it in writing as a care plan and sharing it with everyone involved means they all know who is responsible for what and when.

Posters

Keeping In Touch With Your Children Menu

Produced by the Northern Psychiatric Unit, Northern Area Mental Health Service, NorthWestern Mental Health, Victoria.

The Keeping In Touch With Your Children Menu was designed to enable use within any adult acute psychiatric inpatient unit in Australia. If it is used to develop practice initiatives we would love to hear about them. Email: Angela Obradovic, Chief Social Worker, Northern Area Mental Health Service at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please be aware before downloading that these are very large files due to their high quality. A compressed version (lo res) is also available below but contains a watermark from the free compression software.