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)
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?
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.
What support needs does the parent/family
have?
- Work with family members and other
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
- programmes to assist parents to
develop skills
- counselling to support the
partnership of parents
- transport assistance
- financial support to enable care and
protection of the child (eg for
childcare).
- carer's support (Commonwealth Carer
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
and 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 downloaded from
the COMIC website: http://www.howstat.
com/comic)
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.
Does the person feel they 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, encourage or assist the
parent/s to seek this information from their
health professional/s.
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/s 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
organisations 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.