Supporting families with parental mental illness
Being a parent with a mental illness can be hard. It can not only have a detrimental impact on the parent, but can also affect their children’s wellbeing and development.
For several years now we have been fortunate to partner with Our Time (a national charity) who supports children who have a parent with a mental illness.
“At the moment, as many as one in three children have a parent with poor mental health. Around one in ten live with an adult with severe mental health difficulties. Given the impact of the pandemic on adult mental health, it’s likely the numbers of children affected are even higher. These are the young people we work to help.” OurTime (2024)
In Plymouth, we have adopted a multi-faceted and systemic approach to supporting our partner schools where some families have parents struggling with a mental illness. This intervention is called KidsTime and it allows parents to come (with their children) to spend time together, in small groups of other parents and also in small groups of other children. In these sessions families are able to talk about their difficulties and reduce the stigma and shame they feel through taking part in supported therapeutic activities such as art, drama and games.
Who runs our KidsTime sessions?
Our KidsTime workshops are facilitated by a psychotherapist, a teacher and two family learning mentors and often other trained staff from multi-agency support team (MAST) support these sessions.
Purpose:
To offer a safe space to help parents and children understand more about mental illness and how it impacts their lives and to provide opportunities for fun and joy.
Detail and structure:
We accept requests for this intervention from our partner primary schools. One of our team will meet with the parents to undertake an assessment process for suitability. There is a trial period for the families of up to 3 sessions to enable the clients / facilitators to decide if this intervention is appropriate for them.
We run two KidsTime groups, who attend on alternate Wednesday evenings from 4:30pm till 6:30pm.
1. On arrival the team welcome our clients, provide refreshments, some social chat and take their pizza order.
2.Seminar session - we remain together to discuss the current theme. Play a game/role play. There is always a theme that we work through, over time covering all aspects of mental illness and its effects upon the families.
3.Separate into two groups - adult session, a safe, confidential space facilitated by a psychotherapist and one other member of the team, to discuss the current theme and any other concerns arising for them. Meanwhile the children will do a creative session, based on the current theme and how it affects them - facilitated by at least two members of the team. This includes arts and crafts, role play and filming.
4.We come back together as a group to share what we have done and for the adults to see the children’s creations.
5.Pizza time! This is an important social aspect of KidsTime where the families can interact with each other and the team.
6.Ending activity - Every third session there is a whole group art session based on the current theme, where parents and children work together, giving the families the opportunity to express themselves creatively. We are currently working towards mounting an exhibition, which was suggested by one of our clients, to display the many aspects of mental illness, how families live and manage and keep going, facing the ups and downs of everyday life despite their many challenges.
7.Feedback from the sessions:-
• Make friendships
• Feel supported
• Not alone in their mental illness
• Feel understood and listened to
• Validated and acknowledged
• A space to let your guard down and un-mask
• Share as little or as much as feel comfortable
The importance of providing the safe environment, building trusting working relationships, to enable support of the families is key. In fact, it is key to all of the work we do in PLP and is a privilege. Being in a position of such trust is not lost on us.
The children blossom during the creative sessions and never cease to amaze us with their offerings and insights. There is always joy in these sessions despite the seemingly difficult subject matter and the parents are often moved when seeing their child’s work.
The positive effects the families experience show through in their discussions and creations. It captures the rollercoaster of mental illness and offers an understanding around the impact of their illness upon their children and for the children to understand more about their parents is powerful and enhances the relationships between them.
To find out more about OurTime and Kidstime workshops please visit: https://ourtime.org.uk/
If you are a SENCO or Head Teacher of one of our partner Plymouth schools and would like to talk about KidsTime for a family, please contact your MAST Link Educational Psychologist or call us on 07458 305 006.
