Parents with Serious Mental Health Problems
Parenthood can be more challenging when a parent experiences serious mental health problems, which can negatively affect family life and children’s emotional, social, and behavioral development. Parental distress and mental health problems increase the risk of mental health problems in children and adolescents. Data suggest that well over half of service users with psychosis or psychiatric disorder are also parents. This chapter focuses on research into mental health difficulties in the perinatal period and parenting with psychosis and with bipolar disorder. To date, promising outcomes have been found for initial trials investigating the delivery of parenting support to parents with serious mental health conditions, particularly bipolar disorder, but empirical work is limited. The chapter identifies priority areas for research to refine approaches to parenting support to best suit different mental health conditions and contexts.