COPMI (Children of Parents with a Mental Illness) Capacity Building "Stories from the Real World"

Title: Awareness Raising with Child Protecton Services - Koping and Child Safety Officer Training

Activity:  Workforce Development (e.g. in-house training, course development, professional supervision systems)

Keywords:  child protection, koping

Name:  Shirley Anastasi

Organisation:  Brisbane Nth Mental Health Service Early Intervention Projects

Address:  PO Box 1507

Suburb:  Fortitude Valley

Postcode:  4006

Phone:  07 3835 1472

About :This story is about providing training to child protection services; raising awareness about the impact that mental illness can have on families, with a focus on supporting parenting needs.

Commencement Date:  Month not specified-2003

Completion Date:  Month not specified-2004

Location:  In a metropolitan region

To do:  Increase awareness/skills/knowledge

Target Group:  Entry level Child Safety Officers participating in State-wide Professional Practice Training

Who was involved:  - Early Intervention Project Officers, Child & Youth Mental Health Services (CYMHS), Royal Children's Hospital(RCH) & Health Service District (HSD) - Koping Project Officer - Training and Specialist Support Branch, Department of Child Safety

What we did:  Every new entry level Child Safety Officer, with the Department of Child Safety in QLD, is required to attend an 11-week block professional practice training program. With the enormity of content that needs to be covered in this training program, it was a challenge to engage the Department in considering the addition of information on mental health generally and early intervention in mental health.

The formal 'capacity building' story is based on developing and enhancing network contacts from within the Department of Child Safety. The informal implementation story is is one of persistance. A number of Early Intervention Officers with Child and Youth Mental Health Services maintained regular communication with Department contacts, building trust between Govt Department as such, and persistently offering to contribute to professional development opportunities.

Eventually, 4 x 3 hour sessions within each training block, were allocated to Mental Health Early Intervention programs - and one of these sessions is dedicated to the topic of children of parents with a mental illness. So, every new entry level Child Safety Officer is exposed to an awareness raising session about the impact of mental illness on families generally, the impact of mental illness on parenting and the resources available to support children, young people and families in these situations.

Resources from both the Koping Project and the national Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) intiative are distributed and welcomed.


What we found:  An immediately noticeable impact is the increased number of enquiries and referrals to the Koping Adolescent Group Program from Child Safety Officers in the local area. Until the session, the majority are unaware of this resource in their local area.

What I sense from participants during the sessions is consideration of mental illness and child protection from a proactive rather than reactive perspective. Participants are pleased to be made aware of the existence of the Koping Project as well as the National COPMI Resource Centre and a range of tools, tips, resources that can be utilised at all levels of intervention e.g. Safety Plans.


At the end of the day, the persistence and the "proof of the pudding" in conducting these sessions has restored some professional trust between Government Departments at this training and development level. This is a step in the right direction in terms of relationships in our Health Service District.

What worked well:  Participant responses during these sessions indicate that there is not a lot known about COPMI issues and, therefore, the Koping Project has been successful in awareness raising.

Distributing the national COPMI initiative resources and the Koping resources has worked well. Even though participants are from around the state, providing them with resources such as the "Family Talk" and "The Best for Me and My Baby" booklets has been welcomed.

In the context of this wider group training, it has still been useful to engage with participants from local offices and for Child Safety Officers to have a "face and a name" locally; hopefully, encouraging future contact with the Koping Project.

The inclusion of the mental health information as part of the knowledge delivery has been useful in setting the context for COPMI issues.




What didn't work so well :I guess that the capacity and the appropriateness(within my Health Service District)of one COPMI dedicated project position, such as the Koping Project Officer position, delivering training to a state-wide audience, needs to be considered. However, if the Koping position does not provide this service, it is felt that the opportunity would be missed.

What others can learn from our work: The mental health literacy level of staff in the child protection sector is very varied, with a signifcant proportion having limited knowledge about mental illness. After the first two block sessions I delivered, I added some general mental health information - e.g. definition of mental illness, types of mental illness, symptoms, myths & facts, Mental Health Act. I have added this with the message that we are not expecting them to be mental health experts or act as mental health clinicians; rather, that having this level of mental health literacy lends itself to improved understanding of the interaction of diffferent mental health issues and parenting and, therefore, child protection issues.

What form or evaluation did you do?: Nil formal evaluation. As part of the overall training program, the Training & Development Unit collects feedback regarding sessions. This feedback has been consistently positive.

Where to from here:  Early Intervention programs and, specifically, the Koping Project, will continue to deliver sessions as part of this training program. The children of parents with a mental illness session is now an automatic and well-received inclusion rather than an unknown or "just another session to fit in".

The opportunity has gone a long way to contributing to good will at least with local offices and the training unit, and further opportunities (e.g. for formal partnership) could potentially develop in the future.

People to acknowledge/thank: I guess that this story isn't about a formal partnership or process, and it certainly isn't rocket science, but I thought that a story about persistence and building relationships slowly was important to share. So, I thank my colleagues working as CYMHS Early Intervention Project Officers, the RCH HSD and the Training and Specialist Support Branch, Department of Child Safety.

Date Submitted:  Jul 21, 2005 2:26:34 PM

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