European Psychiatry - Volume 41 - April 2017

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S38 25th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 41S (2017) S8–S52
Symposium: Children of parents with mental
disorders: needs assessment and model
interventions
S100
The needs of children who have
parents suffering from severe mental
disorders
G. De Girolamo ∗, G. Signorini , V. Candini
1 Saint John of god clinical research center, psychiatric epidemiology
and evaluation unit, Brescia, Italy
2 IRCCS St John of God clinical research centre, UOPEV, Brescia, Italy
∗ Corresponding author.
Abstract
Objective Mental illness in parents is a biological and environ-
mental risk factor to which young people are exposed. Living with
a parent suffering from a mental disorder may have a variety of
detrimental consequences, including: (a) the reversal of caregiving
(“parentification”); (b) the exposure to an adverse environment,
where developmental needs of the child (emotional and practi-
cal) might be repeatedly neglected (lack of communication, high
expressed emotion, etc.); (c) stigma and discrimination. We will
provide a review of needs of these children and of possible inter-
ventions.
Methods Systematic searches located studies reporting and
assessing met and unmet needs of these children.
Results Young people living in such families often have prob-
lems of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, cognitions of
shame, guilt, and loneliness, perceptions of lacking social support
and social acceptance. Children who have mentally ill parents are
up to two and a half times more likely to experience poorer men-
tal health outcomes than their peers. Compared to peers, children
of parents with mental disorders are also at risk of poorer intel-
lectual and social outcomes, of affect dysregulation, of behavioral
problems, of impaired attention and reduced overall adaptive func-
tioning, of higher rates of substance abuse and multiple diagnosis
and finally of low occupational status, health risk behaviour and
antisocial behavior.
Conclusions Given the high toll paid by children having parents
suffering from severe mental disorders, it is urgent to develop, test
and implement structured programmes to help these children cope
with stressful circumstances and improve their resilience.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.
S101
Identifying and supporting children of
mentally ill parents within adult
mental health services
C. Reedtz
Regional centre for child and youth mental health and child welfare,
the faculty of health science- UiT The Arctic university of Norway,
Tromso, Norway
Background Studies have shown that implementing a change
of practice in adult mental health care to identify and support
children of mentally ill parents is challenging, even though the
risk of transgenerational transmission of socioemotional problems
and psychopathology has been thoroughly demonstrated the last
decade.
Aims The current presentation describes the existing practice of
identifying and supporting children of mentally ill parents within
adult mental health services. The study was conducted after Nor-
wegian health legislation had been changed to make these tasks
mandatory. The effort included implementation of two interven-
tions; Family Assessment, an intervention for practitioners to
increase identification of patients who are also parents and their
children, and child talks, an intervention designed to provide sup-
port for parents and children within the participating hospital.
Method The sample included mental health professionals in a
large university hospital in Northern Norway, who responded to
a web-based survey on the routines of the services, attitudes
within the workforce capacity, worker’s knowledge on the impact
of parental mental illness on children, knowledge on legislation
concerning children of patients, and demographic variables. Regis-
ter data from the Electronic Patient Journals (EPJ) was analyzed to
assess whether or not the self-reported routines match the reality
in the clinic.
Discussion The prospects of clinical change will be discussed in
general, as well as to which extent the two implemented interven-
tions have contributed to changes in the clinical practice, workforce
knowledge and attitudes in the participating hospital.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
S102
Dutch intervention programmes for
children of mentally ill parents
T. Van Amelsvoort
Department of psychiatry and psychology, Maastricht university, The
Netherlands
This presentation reports on the outcomes of a practice-based and
science-based enterprise in the Netherlands to develop a com-
prehensive national prevention program focused on children of
parents with a mental illness. An outline of the multicomponent
program is presented which includes a wide set of interventions
that address evidence-based risk factors and protective factors
in multiple domains, including children in different age groups,
parents and families, social networks, professionals and the com-
munity as a whole.
The 20-year history of this program illustrates the importance of
long-term collaborative investments that are required of practi-
tioners, policymakers and scientists to develop and implement a
nationwide, comprehensive approach for addressing the preva-
lent transmission of psychiatric problems from parent to child. The
results of recently undertaken controlled efficacy studies of various
preventive interventions are presented, as well as findings from
process evaluations. Also, strengths and weaknesses of the current
program are discussed and recommendations will be offered for
the main challenges ahead in terms of program innovation, imple-
mentation and research.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
S103
Toward the development of new
strategies to assess the needs of
children and adolescents with
severely mentally ill parents
K. Abel
University of Manchester- UK, centre for women’s mental health-
institute of brain behaviour and mental health- Manchester,
Manchester, United Kingdom
Up to 10% of mothers and 5% of fathers in Europe have mental
illness. Family, educational and social lives of children and ado-
lescents with parental with mental illness (CAPRI) are disrupted
by deprivation & repeated hospitalization. This is an urgent politi-