Research & Best Practice

Getting it Right for Young Carers - The Young Carers Strategy for Scotland 2010-2015
Produced for the Scottish Government by APS Group Scotland
Published by the Scottish Government, July, 2010

This document is also available on the Scottish Governments website: www.scotland.gov.uk

The Scottish Government and COSLA are determined to ensure that carers are supported to manage their caring responsibilities with confidence and in good health, and to have a life of their own outside of caring. We are pleased to have worked together with a range of interests, including Health Boards, the national carer organisations and carers in developing this strategy. It will build on the support already in place and take forward the recommendations of the landmark report, Care 21: The Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland.

We recognise carers as equal partners in the delivery of care in Scotland and fully acknowledge carers‟ expertise, knowledge and the quality of care they give. With appropriate support, especially support delivered early to prevent crisis, caring need not have an adverse impact on carers.

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Principles and Actions for Services and People Working with Children of Parents with a Mental Illness
Prepared by the Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Children of Parents With A Mental Illness (COPMI). COPMI Principles and Actions Consultation Paper, April 2003

This document marks an important milestone in the COPMI project. Following broad ranging consultations across Australia and an extensive literature search, a Discussion Document was developed and widely circulated for comment. Formal responses were received, emanating from all states and territories, from local and national bodies, and from individuals and groups of consumers, carers, young people and service providers across a range of sectors.

Consultations relating to the Discussion Document were also held with children and young people living in urban and rural areas of Australia, who have a parent with a mental illness. This draft document is the culmination of the consultation process, and service providers at the individual, team, organisation and systems level will now subject the action statements contained within it to review and evaluation.

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Supporting Families with a Mentally Ill Parent: European Perspectives on Interagency Cooperation
Rachael Hetheringtin & Karen Baistow, Dept Od Social Work, Brunel University, UK (3 July 2001)

This paper reports on the findings of a cross-country comparison of cooperation between services for community mental health and chils protection in 11 states. The authors consider the implications of the findings for English practice.

The Addiction Environment: The Impact on Children and Young People Living in Families with Addiction Problems. - Trish Gledhill - (2002). Children and young people’s environments (99-111). Dunedin, New Zealand: Children’s Issues Centre

This paper addresses the impact that an environment has upon children both in terms of the factors that place children at risk and the factors existing in home, school and community environments that provide resilience from harm. The material presented in this paper will be based on the presenter's book 21 Fun Street, Kool Kids - Therapeutic Programmes for Children Living with Addiction. Other current literature and research will be included. Children living in these family environments have limited access to support and specialist services. Services continue to focus predominantly on the identified adult for treatment without considering the needs of the child in this context. The implications for policy and practice to address these needs are discussed and a therapeutic group environment is described that provides opportunities for these children to develop their strengths and resources.

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Making alcohol and drug treatment for young people a priority is an essential investment in New Zealand’s future. - National Committee for Addiction Treatment - POSITION STATEMENT JUNE 2009

The National Committee for Addiction Treatment (NCAT) is the national voice of the addiction treatment sector, representing treatment, education, policy, and other interests.

Our goals are to double the capacity of New Zealand’s addiction treatment sector within the next three years, broaden the range of treatment options available, and improve access to treatment.

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Impacts on Children and Young People of Parental Mental Illness

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Young Carers, Young Victims, or Young Survivors?: impacts on, and responses of children of parents with mental illness. - Alan Cooklin, Consultant in Family Psychiatry, Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care (NHS)Trust.

It is timely to stop and think what is meant when statistics and descriptive narrative about young carers are cited. Whilst it is necessary to define children in this situation as young carers – because some resources are identified for this group – the term itself is problematic. It tends to sanitise the often quite unacceptable and intolerable demands being made on some children and young people. Most children and young people who have a parent with mental illness will not think of themselves as carers, even if they are lucky enough to attend a ‘Young Carers’ programme.

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CHAPTER 12 - Children of Parents with Mental Illness - by Alan Cooklin (2006) - From Children in Family Contexts, Second edition: Perspectives on Treatment, edited by Lee Combrinck-Graham

In this chapter I briefly review the evidence for the impacts of parental mental illness on children and then summarize these impacts as well as some of their needs as identified by a particular group of children and young people. Finally, I consider a number of contexts in which children’s experience of, as well as misconceptions and fears about, a parent’s mental illness can be both discussed and “put in their place” in a way that can make the illness more manageable for a child.

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UQ Research Finds A Mother's Mental Health Can Impact On Children - Summary of Research at the University of Queensland in Australia by Dr Belinda Lloyd.

UQ Research Finds A Mother's Mental Health Can Impact On Children: Teenagers whose mothers have mental health impairments are likely to suffer behavioural problems, UQ research has found. Using data from the Mater‐University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), recent PhD graduate Belinda Lloyd studied maternal mental health and its impact on children.

The MUSP is a longitudinal study of more than 7000 mothers and their children born at Brisbane's Mater Hospital between 1981‐83.