Parents With Mental Illness Ashamed To Ask for Help - NFP Report
23 August 2012 at 11:11 am
A new study by the national mental health charity SANE Australia, reveals that many parents with a mental illness raising children lack support from health professionals and school staff, and they feel ashamed to ask for help.
SANE Australia's study found that only about a third (31 per cent) of survey respondents have told their child’s school they have a mental illness and half of these found the disclosure unhelpful, leading to stigmatising by other parents and, in some cases, bullying of their child.
“It is unacceptable that in 2012, people are too embarrassed to say they have a mental illness. Not only is this unfair to the parent, it is also unfair to their child, whose health and education can suffer as a result,” Jack Heath, CEO of SANE Australia said.
“Many parents managing a mental illness are acutely aware that their illness is a recognised risk factor for their child to develop mental health problems later in life, such as depression. That’s why it’s so important they get support when they need it.
“It may be as simple as help to get their children to or from school, to sport practice or help with an evening meal,” Heath said.
The survey was conducted in partnership with COPMI, the national initiative for Children of Parents with a Mental Illness.
According to COPMI Director, Elizabeth Fudge, parents managing a mental illness often need additional information and support from health professionals.
“This vital support is best when it focusses on the whole family, not just the parent or the child.”
SANE Australia’s Research Bulletin 16 – Parenting and mental illness: the school years found nearly half the 330 parents surveyed said they have not sought help for their mental illness on occasions because they feared losing custody of their child.
An even greater proportion (64 per cent) indicated they would resist going to hospital because of concern for their child.
The majority of the parents who participated in the survey, which asked about the experience of being a parent with a mental illness with a school-age child, were women (84 per cent). The most common diagnosis was depression (50 per cent) followed by bipolar disorder (23 per cent), and just under half (45 per cent) the participants lived in rural areas.
The research also found that parents living with a mental illness primarily rely on family and friends for support, where available.
“Again the burden is placed on family because there are insufficient supports available in the community,” Heath says.
“What’s even more concerning is that more than 10 per cent of the people we surveyed said they have no one to call on if they are ill.”
Another major concern identified in the survey was that nearly half of parents living with a mental illness do not have a care plan in place regarding their children, if they become unwell or need to go to hospital.
“This is cause for ongoing anxiety and stress, as well as leading to problems when people are in crisis,” SANE’s CEO said.
The SANE Australia report recommends that health professionals work with parents to prepare a plan for care of children as part of routine clinical care.
It also recommends that there is better sharing of information about on-the-ground support and that schools review policies and practices to help families where a parent has a mental illness.
Sadly when mental illness kicks in, there is no capacity to organise or consider anyone else and that includes loved ones.
It does fall to family and friends, and that is the right thing. Where there are no family and friends, and lets face it, the first rule of depression is to antagonise or ditch all family and friends so they will leave you alone, then a new process needs to be in place.
What is needed is a school nurse who has the welfare of the children as her first priority and attached to every school. Children could go to her to talk about their problems with ill parents and she could initiate the process for care of the family. But how many school nurses are there? A teacher is not the right person. It must be someone separate so this information is not placed on the child’s school record.
No family will seek help either if the process is convoluted or seeks to separate the adult from the children for an indeterminate period.
These people are unlikely to get help anyway. Any behaviour difficulties their child has at school is going to be blamed on the parents mental health issues and how it affects their ability to parent the child.
Were the parent to present to a mental health service they are going to be told to go to their GP and ask for a mental health care plan to see a psychologist. Even though mental health services are supposed to review “open” mental health patients every three months they won’t. They will simply close the case so they don’t need to. Australian mental health services really don’t get the reason they are supposed to be reviewed every three months is so the patient gets seen at least every three months. There are major systemic issues here caused by managers that are just plain stupid.
When any kid presents with ADHD type behaviours this is going to be identified as poor parenting.
AVOID mental health services and take your kids to see a Paediatrician; they are going to understand you child has developmental delays rather than everything being down to your poor eye contact with child as an infant.