How children understand parental mental illness: "you don't get life insurance. What's life insurance?".

OBJECTIVES

To understand how children living with parental mental illness (PMI) understand mental illness (MI) and what they want to tell other children.

METHOD

The study design was a secondary analysis of a grounded theory study exploring Canadian children's perceptions of living with PMI. Interviews from 22 children, ages 6 - 16, living with a parent with depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia receiving treatment for the MI, were re-read, coded and analyzed along with data categories, their properties, field notes and memos from the original data.

RESULTS

Children revealed that they had limited understanding of MI and received few factual explanations of what was happening. Limited information on MI caused undue hardship. Younger children worried about their parent dying, while older children also were concerned about developing MI. Children offered suggestions for other children in similar circumstances.

CONCLUSIONS

This study raises awareness of children living with PMI and identifies them as a population requiring services. It incorporates children's perceptions of what they know and need to know. Children require assistance to understand and to respond to PMI. Mental health and primary health care clinicians have opportunities to assist these children within collaborative care models developed in conjunction with school services.