The Royal College of Psychiatrists today launches a new
multi-media training package for professionals who work with adults
with mental illness. It provides creative and practical suggestions
about working with parents with mental illness and their
children.
Entitled ‘Being seen and heard: the needs of children with
parents with mental illness’, this resource includes clips of
children, young people and their parents talking about their
experiences of mental illness within the family, and how
professionals can work effectively with them.
As many as 175,000 young people in the UK are involved in the
care of an adult with a health or a mental health problem. These
children usually worry about their parents, may blame themselves
for the illness, fear that they will ‘catch’ it and feel
unsupported.
“Many thousands of children have to care in some way for a
parent with mental illness. The problem is that their role as
carers many not be recognised by the adults around them, or even by
themselves. For instance, they are sometimes quite inappropriately
left to manage a parent’s medication,” said Dr Alan Cooklin,
Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, who developed, wrote
and produced this new training tool.
“Children with a parent with mental illness often fall through
the professional net and are seen as nobody’s responsibility.
Nothing is explained to them, and they often receive no help
at all to deal with the effects of the parent’s illness. These
children need to be seen and heard.
“All professionals working with adults with mental illness
need to stop and think about the needs of these young people.
We want to:
- Alert them to the seriously neglected needs of these
children
- Encourage them to talk to, and plan for them
- Encourage liaison and joint working between the different
agencies involved.”
- Being seen and heard’ includes a video (60 minutes) divided
into two sections.
Section1 includes:
- the referral and the questions professionals need to
consider
- children and young people describing their
experiences
- children and young people describing what they need from
professionals
- children and young people’s views about what they need when
their parent is admitted to hospital.
Section 2 includes:
- techniques for talking to children and young people on their
own and with their families
- clips of a special projects that works with children in a
group
- key messages.
The CD-ROM includes hand-outs for use as part of a professional
training session.
Cost: £30.00 + £5.25 VAT (including postage and packaging).
Available from Book Sales, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 17
Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PG. ext. or See www.rcpsych.ac.uk/publications.
For further information, please contact Liz Fox or Deborah
Hart in the Communications Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
Note to editors:
1. The training film was produced by Dr Alan Cooklin in partnership with Camden & Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust, Camden & Islington Family Services Unit, Camden Area Child Protection Committee, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and virtuall.org: the London Mental Health Learning Partnership.
2. ‘Partners in Care: working together to make a real difference’ is a year-long joint campaign between The Royal College of Psychiatrists and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers which aims to:
highlight the problems faced by carers of people with different mental health problems and learning disabilities
encourage true partnerships between carers, patients and professionals.