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Do maternal and paternal mental illness and substance abuse predict treatment outcomes for children exposed to violence?
- Authors:
- RISSER Heather J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child Care in Practice, 19(3), 2013, pp.217-220.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study examined whether having a parent with a mental illness or a parent who abuses substances predicts treatment outcomes for children receiving community-based services for exposure to violence. From 2001 to 2011, data were collected from 492 children from one-and-a-half to seven years old and their primary caregivers enrolled in Safe From the Start services. Results indicated significant improvements pre-intervention to post-intervention in child emotional and behavioural problems, as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). One-way bivariate analyses indicated that children of mothers or fathers with a mental illness and children of mothers who abused substances had higher CBCL scores at intake. Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed a main effect such that maternal and paternal mental illness and maternal substance abuse were associated with poorer CBCL scores. The only parental risk factor to moderate the association between treatment and CBCL scores was paternal mental illness. Treatment was associated with greater improvement in CBCL scores for children of fathers with, relative to those without, mental illness, and the effect was due to higher CBCL scores at intake for children of fathers with mental illness rather than lower outcome scores. Results suggest that Safe From the Start services which provide early intervention can be effective in improving children's emotional and behavioural functioning. Additionally, the effectiveness of services appears to be robust to parental risk factors such as mental illness and substance abuse.
Parents’ experience of their child's first psychiatric breakdown: “welcome to hell”
- Authors:
- SHPIGNER Elena, POSSICK Chaya, BUCHBINDER Eli
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work in Health Care, 52(6), 2013, pp.538-557.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
A retrospective study is used to examine the experiences, challenges, and difficulties faced by Israeli parents during the outbreak of psychiatric illness in their children. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 parents who participated in a psycho-educational group in a family mental health center. Several themes regarding parents’ experience of the first outbreak of their children's psychiatric illness emerge from the content analysis of the interviews: the perception of sudden onset of the illness, feelings of being mired in distress, intense pain stemming from guilt and helplessness with concomitant anger, and isolation. The themes are then discussed in light of the concept of ambiguous loss and the existential approach. The findings indicate psycho-social services in the Israeli mental health system provide only a partial response to the needs of parents during this critical period. (Edited publisher abstract)
Who kills children? re-examining the evidence
- Authors:
- PRITCHARD Colin, DAVEY Jill, WILLIAMS Richard
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 43(7), 2013, pp.1403-1438.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Violent children's deaths have become a surrogate indicator of effective child protection but can those who kill children be better identified? A decade-long study of child homicide assailants (population of 2.5 million) is re-examined in the context of nineteen Western nations' child mortality rates and child-abuse-related deaths, correlated with four international measures of relative poverty, focusing on income inequality. Child mortality rates of the nineteen countries were ranked and correlated with levels of poverty. Child mortality and poverty strongly correlated but, unexpectedly, child-abuse-related deaths did not. Child homicide assailants are extremely rare, but three distinct within-family assailant categories can be identified: mentally ill parents, mothers with a child on the Child Protection Register and men with previous convictions for violence. Mentally ill parents were the most frequent assailants, but violent men killed over five times the rate of mentally ill parents. The juxtaposed results indicate that the assailants' problems are essentially psycho-criminological, especially violence, rather than socio-economic, although poverty worsens most situations. Despite the dangers of ‘false positives’, children's services need to give greater weighting to the child protection–psychiatric–violence interface to assist front line staff in improving risk assessment and contribute to reducing the impact that parental mental illness can have on the child. (Publisher abstract)
Characteristics related to family involvement in youth residential mental health treatment
- Authors:
- ROBST John, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 35(1), 2013, pp.40-46.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This study examined family involvement among youth in residential mental health treatment facilities in Florida. Data were obtained from the provider reports from January 2005 through December 2007. Contacts by all family members was for in-person treatment, treatment-related phone contacts, treatment planning, campus visits, and therapeutic home passes. Families averaged 3.4 contacts per 30 days for the 1333 treatment episodes. Sixty-seven percent of the contacts included mothers, while 22% of the contacts involved fathers. A majority of contacts were for family therapy, either by phone (29% of contacts) or in person (43%). Nearly twenty percent of residential stays had no family contact. After the first 30 days of treatment, contacts did not vary significantly over the course of the treatment episode, although there was some evidence that youth with longer treatment episodes had fewer contacts throughout the residential stay. Total contacts were lower for girls than boys, for blacks than whites, and for older youth, and were higher when the youth lived in the same county as the residential treatment provider. Outreach programs could target specific demographic groups with low involvement, and the alternative methods for involvement that use internet conferencing tools should be explored for parents that live far from the treatment provider. (Edited publisher abstract)
Parents' experiences of collaboration between welfare professionals regarding children with anxiety or depression: an explorative study
- Authors:
- WIDMARK Catharina, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Integrated Care, 13(4), 2013, Online only
- Publisher:
- International Foundation for Integrated Care
Introduction: Well-functioning collaboration between professionals in the welfare sector has a strong influence on the contacts with parents of children and adolescents suffering from mental illness, and it is a precondition for the availability of support for these parents. This paper describes how such parents perceive collaboration between professionals in mental health care, social services, and schools. Methods: In this small-scale qualitative study data were collected by in-depth interviews with seven parents of children and adolescents diagnosed with anxiety and depression. The families were selected from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health patient records kept by the Stockholm County Council (Sweden) Results and discussion: The results suggest that when the encounter between parents and professionals is characterised by structure and trust, it is supportive and serves as a holding environment. Parents think that communication links and coordination between professionals from different organisations are needed in the collaboration, along with appropriately scheduled and well-performed joint meetings to create structure in the parent-professional encounter. Parents also think that establishment of trust in this interaction is promoted by individual professionals who are available, provide the parents with adequate information, are skilled, and show empathy and commitment. (Edited publisher abstract)
Mentally ill parents in psychiatric outpatient care: results of the study ‘HELP-S for Children’
- Authors:
- BOENISCH-ALERT S., et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 15(5), 2013, pp.254-262.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Knowledge about mentally ill parents, particularly in psychiatric outpatient care is scarce. The study presented here aims to investigate the characteristics of mentally ill parents with minor children in psychiatric outpatient care. All outpatients with minor children, who came to a psychiatrist's practice in Saxony, Germany, at an appointed date filled out a questionnaire (including diagnosis, sociodemographic data, perceived needs and usage of health care system). Data were analysed using SPSS 18.0. The study sample (n = 128) was characterised by a high percentage of women (75%), and high rates of depression (53.1%), anxiety disorder (19.5%) and addiction (10.9%). The main difference between mothers and fathers was the significantly higher rate of custody in mothers. Of the sample, 21.2% of the children of the mentally ill parents (n = 41) had already received treatment because of psychological or behavioural problems. Mentally ill mothers are more likely to retain a caretaking role in their children's lives. Mentally ill fathers are more likely to have an inpatient stay after the birth of the first child. Treatment rates of 21.2% of children of mentally ill parents concerning psychological or behavioural difficulties are alarmingly high. Therefore, psychiatric outpatient care as the biggest part of psychiatric standard care in Germany should get more attention in research and care for mentally ill parents and their children. (Edited publisher abstract)
Mentally ill parents in psychiatric outpatient care: results of the study ‘HELP-S for Children’
- Authors:
- BOENISCH-ALERT S., et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 15(2), 2013, pp.254-262.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Knowledge about mentally ill parents, particularly in psychiatric outpatient care is scarce. The study presented here aims to investigate the characteristics of mentally ill parents with minor children in psychiatric outpatient care. All outpatients with minor children, who came to a psychiatrist's practice in Saxony, Germany, at an appointed date filled out a questionnaire (including diagnosis, sociodemographic data, perceived needs and usage of health care system). Data were analysed using SPSS 18.0. The study sample (n = 128) was characterized by a high percentage of women (75%), and high rates of depression (53.1%), anxiety disorder (19.5%) and addiction (10.9%). The main difference between mothers and fathers was the significantly higher rate of custody in mothers. Of the sample, 21.2% of the children of the mentally ill parents (n = 41) had already received treatment because of psychological or behavioural problems. Mentally ill mothers are more likely to retain a caretaking role in their children's lives. Mentally ill fathers are more likely to have an inpatient stay after the birth of the first child. Treatment rates of 21.2% of children of mentally ill parents concerning psychological or behavioural difficulties are alarmingly high. Therefore, psychiatric outpatient care as the biggest part of psychiatric standard care in Germany should get more attention in research and care for mentally ill parents and their children. (Publisher abstract)
Posttraumatic stress, partner violence victimization, and harmful drinking risk factors for relationship discord in new parents
- Authors:
- SOTSKOVA Alina, WOODIN Erica M.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(17), 2013, pp.3319-3341.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The first year of parenthood can be a stressful time, especially for high-risk couples. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS) have been associated with decreased intimacy, communication, and relationship adjustment, yet there is a lack of research on how PTS symptoms might affect couples in early parenthood. Furthermore, there is little evidence regarding the way in which PTS symptoms may affect couples above and beyond known risk factors such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and harmful alcohol use. The current study investigated how PTS symptoms were related to new parents’ relationship satisfaction in the context of IPV and harmful drinking. Ninety-eight heterosexual couples filled out questionnaires 1 year after the birth of their first child. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that, for men, PTS symptoms predicted lower relationship satisfaction over and above IPV victimisation and harmful drinking. However, for women, psychological IPV victimisation was the only significant multivariate predictor. In addition, for men, PTS symptoms interacted with harmful drinking to predict poorer relationship satisfaction. The results suggest that women’s relationship satisfaction is particularly linked to psychological IPV victimisation during early parenthood, whereas men’s relationship satisfaction is particularly associated with their own harmful drinking and PTS symptoms. Implications are discussed. (Publisher abstract)
How caregivers make meaning of child mental health problems: toward understanding caregiver strain and help seeking
- Authors:
- MAYBERRY Lindsay Satterwhite, HEFLINGER Craig Anne
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 94(2), 2013, pp.105-113.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
Family caregivers’ conceptualizations of their child’s emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) influence help seeking for the child and caregiver strain. Interviews with 21 caregivers were analysed to explore their conceptualizations about the cause of their child’s EBP, their experiences of strain, and their reported help seeking behaviors. Caregivers had divergent conceptualizations of their child’s EBP: 12 caregivers viewed the EBP as caused by a disorder and described the onset of symptoms as the central stressful event, whereas 9 caregivers described their child’s problems as a response to an earlier stressor (e.g., trauma, abuse, divorce). Different patterns of caregiver strain and help seeking were associated with caregiver conceptualization. All caregivers voiced a need for peer-to-peer support for caregivers and youth with EBP. (Edited publisher abstract)
Out of the mainstream: helping the children of parents with a mental illness
- Authors:
- LOSHAK Rosemary, (ed.)
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 224p.
- Place of publication:
- Abingdon
At least 25% of service users in community mental health teams are parents of dependent children. Serious parental mental illness is likely to have an impact on children’s emotional, social and physical wellbeing and development. Despite this, the organisation of services for children and adults has remained very separate, contributing to the difficulties of identifying and providing for the needs of these children and their families. This book identifies those aspects of mental illness which can compromise parenting and affect children’s development. It considers how the diverse groups of agencies, specialist teams and groups in the community can work together to intervene effectively. It outlines different theoretical approaches which may be in use alongside each other, including: a systems theory approach to work with families and with agencies; the psychoanalytic understanding of mental illness and its impact on family relationships and organisations; an educational approach to supporting staff, children and parents; and a psychiatric or bio-medical model of work. The book also describes an early intervention project in an inner London borough, the Children and Adult Mental Health Project (CHAMP), which brings mental health and children’s services staff together to provide a direct service to families.