Describes the Icarus Project which is an international comparative study of how health and social services recognise and respond to the psychosocial needs of children of mentally ill parents

Butler, Shane

Kirwan, Gloria

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The Icarus Project: report on Luxemburg seminar of March 1999

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Social Work in EuropeVolume 6 Number 272**This seminar was funded by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Data analysis for the Icarus Projectwas funded by Directorate General XII of the EC.The Icarus Project is an international comparativestudy of how health and social services recogniseand respond to the psychosocial needs of childrenof mentally ill parents; the study takes its namefrom the Greek myth of Daedulus and Icarus, withIcarus being seen as a victim of his father’sdelusional system. The project was conceived andco-ordinated by the Centre for Comparative SocialWork studies at Brunel University. The seminarwhich took place in Luxembourg from March 19 to21, 1999, was attended by researchers from thetwelve participating European countries (England,Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotlandand Sweden ) as well as by a researcher from theState of Victoria in Australia. Data gathering forthe project’s main report has now finished, and atthe Luxembourg seminar delegates worked on thepreliminary data analysis and agreed a frameworkfor the final report. This final report is due to becompleted in January 2000.Without exception, recent policy developments inthe participating countries have made it increasinglylikely that children will continue to live withmentally ill parents: the policy trend in adult mentalhealth services is for less frequent and shorterperiods of inpatient treatment, while in childwelfare and protection the general belief is that, asfar as possible, children should be cared for withintheir own families as opposed to being taken intosome alternative care system. The workinghypothesis of the Icarus Project, however, was thatthe needs of these children might not always beclearly addressed because, despite the rhetoric ofinter-agency and inter-professional collaboration inchild welfare, adult mental health services and childwelfare services tend to operate as distinctlyseparate systems and effective liaison betweenthem cannot be taken for granted.The methodology which has been used in thisresearch was qualitative; teams of professionalsfrom adult psychiatry and child welfare ( and insome countries child psychiatry) were broughttogether in the participating countries for focusgroup discussions of a case study/vignette, whichtracked the difficulties being experienced by onefamily over three chronological stages. Essentially,the researchers used this group discussion to elicitthe views of the professional teams as to how, intheir respective countries, the service systems andprofessionals would help the children described inthe vignette. Transcripts were made of the tapeddiscussions and these transcripts are currentlybeing analysed by the Centre for ComparativeSocial Work Studies and the Practice DevelopmentUnit of the NSPCC.While the methodology involved the use of groupdiscussion with professionals from relevant servicesystems, it should be noted that it was not of the “hit and run” variety commonly to be found in socialresearch; instead, the philosophy of Icarus was oneof ongoing collaborative inquiry, with theprofessionals being drawn back into the researchprocess and encouraged to reflect on thepreliminary data analysis and to identify factorswhich might facilitate best practice in this area.The large number of participating countries made itdifficult to do total comparisons when follow-upgroups were being held with the professionalteams, so to overcome this problem countries weretwinned. Follow-up groups, therefore, simplyinvolved individual countries comparing their ownresponses with those of one other country. Ireland,for example, was twinned with Sweden so that,when the Irish researchers reconvened theprofessional teams, this second round of groupmeetings consisted of a detailed comparison of theIrish with the Swedish responses to the vignette. Inaddition to the researchers, the Luxembourgseminar was also attended by representatives ofparticipating professionals, from many of thecountries involved so that, again, theseprofessionals were able to contribute to the overallanalysis of the data as well as meeting directly withcolleagues from their twin countries. As a result ofThe Icarus Project: Report on Luxemburg Seminar ofMarch 1999 **Shane Butler & Gloria KirwanThe authors are lecturers in the Department of Social Studies,Trinity College Dublin.Social Work in Europe 73Volume 6 Number 2the Luxembourg seminar, plans have been made bya number of the twinned countries to have furthermeetings in order to look in more detail at points ofsimilarity and dissimilarity in the handling of thesechild welfare issues.It would be premature at this stage to attempt adefinitive summary of the final Icarus report, butthe following are some of the themes which haveemerged as central to understanding the differingways in which countries respond to the needs ofchildren of mentally ill parents: differing cultural values as to the legitimacy ofstate intervention into family life; differing conclusions as to the value of, or needfor, mandatory reporting systems for childabuse; resourcing of child welfare and adult mentalhealth services; conflicting views as to what constitutesprofessional confidentiality and the importanceof this as an ethical issue; the use of formal management systems in anattempt to ensure that children of mentally illparents are recognised as a client group withspecific needs; the identification of one professional group - forinstance, GPs- as being well placed to co-ordinate work in this complex arena; the recognition of the importance of fostering aninformal culture of good relations betweendifferent professions and service systems, asopposed to having an excessive reliance on legaland bureaucratic guidelines and regulations.The Luxembourg seminar confirmed the value ofinternational comparative research of this kind, andthe experience was useful and enjoyable for allwho attended. A common view which emergedfrom the detailed discussions was that whileparticipants learnt a great deal about how childwelfare is handled in other countries, they alsolearnt a great deal about their own countries as aresult of looking at the familiar through the eyes ofothers. The ultimate aim of Icarus is to promotegood communication and co-operation between allprofessionals and service systems which areinvolved with children of mentally ill parents, whileat the same time acknowledging and welcomingcultural diversity. The researchers were anxious toavoid having Icarus degenerate into a child welfareversion of the Eurovision Song Contest, with leaguetables, winners and losers. The final reportpromises to be interesting and helpful, and it is to beassumed that there will be many spin-offpublications from this imaginative project.Watch this space!

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The Icarus Project: report on Luxemburg seminar of March 1999

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