Critical Issues for Parents with Mental Illness and their Families

Recommendations

Systems:

Obtain national prevalence data on the parenting status of adults with mental illness, both fathers and mothers, and the family status of their children, for use in policy and program planning.
Identify factors that contribute to parents' success and reduce risk to their children.
Explore the experiences of children whose parents have mental illness in the current treatment, rehabilitation and advocacy climates, and provide opportunities for subjective reporting to children of different ages and developmental stages.
Conduct research on the prevalence of child abuse and neglect among families in which parents have mental illness.
Study the impact of childhood trauma and current violence on parents' functioning, their relationships with their children, and their ability and willingness to access services.
Document the costs and benefits of family disruption (emotional and financial) and factor these into policy and practice decision-making.
Review existing policies and practices and modify them, as needed, to consider the impact on parents with mental illness and their families.
Reorganize the administration and funding of mental health services to support the system's capacity to respond to family need whether the "identified client" is the adult or the child, and encourage a "family wrap-around" approach.
Support knowledge dissemination across systems and fields, e.g., child welfare family preservation models, Head Start/early intervention models, programs for incarcerated parents, substance abuse treatment initiatives, etc.
Involve consumers and family members in all aspects of research, policy and program development and evaluation, and training and advocacy.

Services:

Revise standardized service plans and treatment protocols to overcome system-induced barriers to service utilization and treatment effectiveness for parents with mental illness and their children.
Modify interagency agreements and vendor contracts to permit the inclusion of language and expectations for integrated, family-centered, strengths-based care for parents with mental illness and their children.
Describe and evaluate existing programs; replicate those that are effective.
Support the development and evaluation of innovative intervention strategies.

Training and Advocacy:

Target training and advocacy efforts to policy makers, program planners and providers in all systems and domains in which families find themselves, including child welfare workers, teachers, early intervention providers, lawyers, judges, law enforcement personnel, and health care professionals.
Educate families, parents and children about mental illness to overcome stigma among family members and in communities.
A national advocacy network and peer supports may be essential to promoting the well being and healthy functioning of parents with mental illness and their children.

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