Toward a Family-Centered Approach: Families Coping with Parental Mental Illness

Summary: Family-centered approaches have emerged from the child mental health arena. The family-centered model stems from the recognition that children and adults live and function in families and that children are best served when their families are supported. Historically, there has been much silence about the parenting role among adults with mental illness. Traditional mental health services have largely ignored this central reality in the lives of adult clients who are parents and their children. As issues of parenting are typically not included in mental health service planning, the needs of parents with mental illness and their children remain unknown and/or unaddressed

The Invisible Children’s Project: A Family-Centered Intervention for Parents with Mental Illness

This report describes an evaluation of the Invisible Children\u27s Project (ICP), a program in Orange County, New York, that provides home-based, family-centered case management services for parents with mental illness. Policy implications and program recommendations are also discussed. Prepared for the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Policy, Planning and Administration, Rockville, MD

Programs for Families with Parental Mental Illness: Results of a US National Survey

Summary: Survey of programs in the U.S. for parents with mental illness

Family Members with Overlapping Mental Health Needs Require the Transformation of Systems and Services

Women and men with a lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder are at least as likely to be parents as are adults without psychiatric disorder. The majority of adults in all diagnostic categories are parents, including those meeting criteria for affective and anxiety disorders, PTSD, and non-affective psychosis. Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) receiving services in Systems of Care (SOCs) programs may have multiple family risk factors. Family-centered, strengths-based practices require a paradigm shift in the way administrators and providers view and intervene with children and adults. Presented at The Santa Fe Summit on Behavioral Health, the American College of Mental Health Administration, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 2005

Implementation Challenges in Wrapping Interventions Around Families Living with Parental Mental Illness

Summary: Parental mental illness challenges service providers in adult mental health, child welfare and children’s mental health systems of care. This presentation describes the development and implementation of Family Options, a family-centered, strengths-based, family-driven intervention for families living with parental mental illness. Findings from the Family Options implementation study suggest strategies for the replication of the intervention, as well as recommendations for the enhancement of existing programs like children’s systems of care to meet parents’ needs and improve outcomes for all family members