An Online Intervention to Promote Mental Health and Wellbeing for Young Adults Whose Parents Have Mental Illness and/or Substance Use Problems: Theoretical Basis and Intervention Description

The transition to adulthood can be a vulnerable period for certain population groups. In particular, young adults aged 18–25 years who have a parent with mental illness and/or substance use problems face increased risks to their mental health compared to same aged peers. Yet these young adults may not have access to age-appropriate, targeted interventions, nor engage with traditional face-to-face health services. To support this vulnerable group, services need to engage with them in environments where they are likely to seek help, such as the Internet. This paper describes the risk mechanisms for this group of young adults, and the theoretical and empirical basis, aims, features and content of a tailored online group intervention; mi.spot (mental illness: supportive, preventative, online, targeted). The participatory approach employed to design the intervention is described. This involved working collaboratively with stakeholders (i.e., young adults, clinicians, researchers and website developers). Implementation considerations and future research priorities for an online approach targeting this group of young adults conclude the paper

Adult mental health clinicians’ perspectives of parents with a mental illness and their children: single and dual focus approaches

Abstract Background When clinicians in the adult mental health sector work with clients who are parents with dependent children, it is critical they are able to acknowledge and respond to the needs of the parents and their children. However, little is known about clinicians’ personal perspectives and reactions towards these parents and children or if/how they balance the needs of both. Methods Semi structured interviews were conducted with eleven clinicians from adult mental health services in Australia. Interviews focused on clinicians’ experiences when working with parents who have mental illness. Transcripts were analysed within an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework to examine participants’ perspectives and personal reactions to parents and children. Results There was considerable divergence in participants’ reactions towards parents and children and the focus of their perspectives when working with parental mental illness. Feelings of sympathy and responsibility made it difficult for some participants to maintain a dual focus on parents and children and contributed to some adopting practices that focused on the needs of parents (n = 3) or children (n = 1) exclusively. Other participants (n = 7) described strategies and supports that allowed them to manage these feelings and sustain a dual focus that incorporated the experiences and needs of both parents and children. Conclusions It is difficult for some mental health clinicians to maintain a dual focus that incorporates the needs and experiences of parents and their children. However, findings suggest that the challenges of a dual focus may be mitigated through adequate workplace support and a strengths-based practice framework that emphasises parental empowerment

Promoting Self-Determination in Parents With Mental Illness in Adult Mental Health Settings

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is an area that requires a lot of technical documents and an important feature of a well-written document is a coherent narrative. Even though computer software has helped authors in many other aspects of writing, support for document narratives is almost non-existent. Therefore, we introduce CANS (Computer-Aided Narrative Support), a tool that uses Rhetorical Structure Theory to enhance the narrative of a document. From this narrative, the tool generates questions to prompt the author for the content of the document. CANS also allows the author to explore alternative narratives for a document. A catalogue of predefined narrative structures for popular types of documents is provided too. Our tool is still in its rudimentary stages but sufficiently complete to be demonstrated

Trajectories of posttraumatic distress after smoke exposure during a coalmine fire: An analysis of risk and protective factors

In 2014, the coalmine adjacent to the Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley, Australia caught fire and distributed a large volume of toxic smoke into the surrounding community over 45 days. This study investigated risk and protective factors associated with four trajectories of posttraumatic distress (resilience; in-recovery; delayed-onset; chronic) in the affected community. A sample comprising 709 adults participated in two survey rounds, conducted in 2016-2017 and 2019-2020. Participants’ exposure to mine fire-related particulate matter (PM2.5) during the event, sociodemographic circumstances, physical and mental health histories, prior trauma, and exposure to recent stressful events were assessed. Mine fire-related posttraumatic distress was measured using the Impact of Events Scale – Revised and trajectories determined by categorising scores at each survey according to a threshold prescribed for identifying symptoms warranting clinical concern. Responses were analysed with univariate and multivariate multinomial regressions. Socioeconomic advantage and social support were associated with the resilient trajectory, which was the most common posttraumatic distress trajectory among participants. Prior trauma and recent stressful life-events, physical and mental health diagnoses, and loneliness were associated with chronic and delayed-onset trajectories. PM2.5 exposure during the mine fire was not a strong determinant of posttraumatic distress trajectory. Socioeconomic status, social connection, health and life experiences are among the most important factors shaping posttraumatic distress trajectories. These findings contribute to better understanding longer-term psychological resilience and vulnerability following disasters and can inform mental health initiatives within at-risk communities