Adult mental health
Welcome to the Adult mental health learning pathway. This pathway is designed for practitioners working in adult services with parents, including birthing parents, where mental health difficulties, isolation, disadvantage and adversity continue to significantly impact upon them.
Close to half (43%) of all Australians aged 16–85 years will experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.1 Countless more will experience mental health challenges that do not meet the threshold for diagnosis.
Every parent has skills and strengths they draw on to help them in their role. But when a parent is experiencing mental health difficulties, it can be harder for them to access these skills, especially during times of stress. This can place a strain on the parenting role and their relationship with their child, which can in turn impact the child’s mental health and development.
Not all children will experience difficulties as a rest of their parent’s mental health difficulties. But it is important for practitioners to understand how a parent’s own mental health, intergenerational challenges and disadvantages, as well as a family’s history of resilience and know-how, can influence children’s lifelong wellbeing.
This pathway is designed to help grow your understandings of the connection between parents’ and children’s mental health. They aim to build your confidence in talking with parents about the impacts of mental illness and adversity on their children’s development and wellbeing, by offering a guide to holding collaborative, non-judgemental conversations with parents.
The pathway also demonstrates how an intergenerational lens can be used in practice to better understand the strengths and challenges of the families you are working with. An intergenerational approach can help parents to understand how their childhood experiences influence their own parenting, and ensure children are centred in your work (even in they are not physically present).
Learning outcomes
As you progress through this learning pathway you will build your understanding and skills across a range of key areas, including:
- children’s social and emotional wellbeing when working with adults who are parents
- using a prevention and early intervention framework to support children’s mental health
- the history and context of parents' and children's problems
- the history and context of a family’s strengths, resilience and know-how
- helping parents understand the historical factors that influence their parenting, both positively and negatively
- placing the child at the centre of all decisions and interactions
- how experiences of disadvantage, adversity and trauma contribute to children’s mental health
- using brief, focused interactions to engage with parents who experience mental illness
- applying the PERCS Conversation Guide to your work with clients; and
- incorporating the PERCS domains in a child’s life into your conversations with parent-clients about their children’s mental health and wellbeing.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2020-21). National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing. ABS.