Mental Health for Parent and Child Relationship

Mental Health for Parent and Child Relationship

Parents and children or young people often feel isolated and unsupported when the parent is unwell, which can increase distress and anxiety across the family. It is important that mental health and social services support both the parent and their child.

Large numbers of children grow up with a parent who has a mental health problem. Many of these parents will have a mild or short-lived problem. Many children live with a parent who has a long-term alcohol problem or drug dependency, sometimes combined with a mental health problem.

Some parents have a severe and enduring mental illness. These long-term illnesses include schizophrenia, personality disorders and bi-polar disorder.

What can protect children's mental health?
Although many children experience negative effects from their parents' mental ill health, many others do not. Certain factors can protect children's mental health when their parents are unwell for a long time. These include:

• Being supported by agencies who take a 'whole family' approach to supporting the child, their parent and other family members
• Getting support from their relatives, teachers, other adults and their friends
• Having another caregiver who does not have mental health problems
• Being parented in a consistent way
• Cultural factors, such as the support of faith communities, which may vary between different communities.

These factors all go to building and maintaining a child's resilience to difficulties. Social support can help children and young people to cope with their parents' ill health. Young carers' groups can be an important source of support, offering them a chance to meet up with other young carers, talk to people who understand what they are coping with, and enjoy trips and activities that they can't usually join because of their caring responsibilities.

What can help children and young people?

• Children need to be given clear, factual information about their parents' mental ill health - children say they feel less anxious if they are told the truth. The internet increasingly provides a source of information for children and young people to find out about topics that they don't want to discuss with their friends or other people.

• Writing up an information sheet with their parents can prepare children for times when their parent may be absent. It could describe the children's daily/weekly routine and their likes and dislikes. If other caregivers follow this guidance it can provide children with continuity and a sense of security. It can also enable parents to maintain a sense of control and that they are contributing to their children's well-being when they are in hospital.

• Parents can write down what they find helpful and unhelpful when they are unwell. Children often carry this information in their heads which means they may assume the role of their parent's carer without looking for support outside the family. Sharing the parent's support needs with a trusted adult reduces the likelihood of the child taking on inappropriate caring responsibilities and can reduce the guilt that parents may feel about being a burden on their children.

• If a child is going to visit their parent in an inpatient unit, it is important that whoever takes them can explain beforehand what to expect - what the building looks like, how their parent may look and behave, and the effects of medication, how the other service users behave. Mental health units should be able to provide a family room when children can see their parent safely, outside the ward environment.

Source: Mental Health, UK.