Toward a Family-Centered Approach: Families Coping with Parental Mental Illness

Summary: Family-centered approaches have emerged from the child mental health arena. The family-centered model stems from the recognition that children and adults live and function in families and that children are best served when their families are supported. Historically, there has been much silence about the parenting role among adults with mental illness. Traditional mental health services have largely ignored this central reality in the lives of adult clients who are parents and their children. As issues of parenting are typically not included in mental health service planning, the needs of parents with mental illness and their children remain unknown and/or unaddressed