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[Children of psychiatric patients--what to do?]
1Avdeling Ostmarka Sør-Trøndelag Psykiatriske Sykehus, Trondheim.
Insights
Children of psychiatric patients are often overlooked, with limited contact and support services available. This study highlights the neglect of these children, who face documented mental health challenges potentially linked to parental illness.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Child Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Children of parents with mental illness are a vulnerable population.
- These children often have unmet mental health needs.
- Limited healthcare engagement exists for this demographic.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the extent of contact and support services for children of psychiatric inpatients.
- To identify gaps in healthcare provision for this at-risk group.
Main Methods:
- Review of patient records from psychiatric hospital acute wards.
- Screening of assistance programs for patients' children across 21 hospitals.
Main Results:
- Contact was established with only 4% of patients' children.
- Only one out of 21 hospitals routinely offered assistance to patients' children.
- Significant neglect in providing support services was observed.
Conclusions:
- There is a relative neglect of children of psychiatric patients.
- These children, facing documented mental health issues, require targeted support.
- Healthcare services may miss crucial opportunities to intervene with this population.
Abstract:
Examination of the records of first admission patients at the acute ward of a psychiatric hospital indicated that contact was established with only 4% of the patients' children. A screening for assistance to patients' children at the acute wards of 21 hospitals showed, furthermore, that only one hospital offered such assistance as a routine. It is argued that this shows a relative neglect of a group (patients' children) with well documented mental health problems, whose only contact with the health services may be their parent's hospital, and whose problems may relate directly to the parent's problems.