New trial to help children in school

16 March 2005

New trial to help children in school

Children with parents that have a mental illness will soon have greater access to targeted information to help them understand and work through ways to address the issue.
The resource materials being developed by Children Of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) will provide ideas for teachers on how to help children in need.

Using “Saving Francesca”, by Melina Marchetta (Penguin Books), a story that involves a young person dealing with her mother’s depression, the material aims to help teachers:

• support students understanding of mental illness and its affect on families
• reduce the stigma associated with mental illness
• increasing students ‘help seeking’ behaviour

Pilot testing of the material will take place on Friday 18th March within a workshop at the MindMatters conference in Sydney.

Elizabeth Fudge, who has experience in education, community health and health promotion and is Project Manager for COPMI, is conducting the workshop. The resources, once fully developed, will provide advice in a step-by-step way to help teachers to help students. For example the resources will identify specific parts of the book and break it down like this:

We want to be able to use an award winning modern Australian text to help students affected by a parent’s mental illness, and their peers, to discuss issues of relevance to them within the classroom, said Ms Fudge.

The information being piloted with teachers will provide suggestions, activities and techniques for discussing:

• loss and grief responses to mental illness within the family
• young people caring for a parent with a mental illness

COPMI is the Children Of Parents with a Mental Illness initiative being undertaken by the Australian Infant Child Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association (AICAFMHA) for the Australian Government.

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