Sharing Good Practices for the Psychoeducation of Children of Parents with mental health problems in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sharing Good Practices for the Psychoeducation of Children of Parents with mental health problems in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Many parents experience mental illness over the course of their lives. In the United Kingdom, approximately 2.5 million children live in families affected by parental mental illness (Tunnard 2004). In the Netherlands 577.000 children grow up with a parent with a mental illness and/or addiction. In Greece, about 40% of people being admitted in psychiatric hospitals or clinics are parents. Overall, over 67% of women and over 75% of men with serious mental illness are parents (Nicholson et al. 2004).

Serious mental illness (including schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, or severe borderline personality disorder) is associated with impaired parenting capacities. Children report experiences of child neglect and abuse, feeling scared or unsafe due to parents’ psychiatric symptoms, or becoming caregivers to their parent (Duncan et al., 2009). The gene–environment interaction, in combination with high exposure to stress, render children in a high risk of having greater cognitive, emotional, and behavioral difficulties, potentially leading to diagnosable psychiatric problems in later life (Gladstone et al. 2014).

Despite this, children in these situations are often overlooked in mental healthcare settings and have been described as being ‘invisible’ (Maybery & Reupert 2009). Therefore, a more comprehensive knowledge is needed for public health strategies to provide helpful services and psychoeducation in such a vulnerable population.

The ‘’Share4Carers’’ aims to promote key solutions by uniting patients’ organization, academics, clinicians and carers from Belgium, Greece, Italy and Turkey at national level and providing them with the skills and knowledge necessary to promote psychoeducation and raise awareness about the societal impact of being children of parents with mental health problems in Europe. Representatives of the above groups will meet on multiple occasions during the lifecycle of the project in order to share good practices, exchange perspectives on effective advocacy strategies and learn how to engage with decision-makers at national and EU levels.

We will foster cooperation between seven organisations from four different countries and other stakeholders by consistently promoting dialogue between patients, caregivers, scientists, and society.Our goal is to draw the attention of the academic and the general public, as well as relevant state institutions, to the importance of the development of basic and clinical psychoeducation as well as key solution in the prevention, early detection, intervention and support of children. The creation of a project website in WordPress platform, linking to the partners’ own websites, where all project outcomes will be uploaded and contact details will be made available.

Focus Groups organized by representatives of the partners aimed at familiarizing the participants with their work will be facilitated during each event. Furthermore, a Webinar that will revolve around relevant EU policies impacting psychoeducation as well as how to engage with the European Institutions will be organized as part of the project. In addition, various round-table discussions will be held in order to enable the participants to share their perspectives on priorities. Lastly we will create a free of charge support group for people with parents mentally sufferers, 8-12 people, with the aim of sharing experiences, updating and supporting them in their core difficulties, and setting up a support network 8-10 people is proposed during the duration of the project.
• The creation of a project website in WordPress platform, linking to the partners’ own websites, where all project outcomes will be uploaded and contact details will be made available in March 2020 from Dynami Zois.
• Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts will be created for the project by the Italian partner “CHILDREN OF MENTALLY ILL PARENTS” and EPIONI. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn posts from Partners’ (Dynami Zois, EUFAMI, Fondazione di Liegro, COMIP, EPIONI & CNP St-Martin) social media accounts will also be utilized as a means of disseminating project results to a wider audience.

All stakeholders, including the seven partners and the seven associated partners will be invited to share good practices and examples of psychoeducation of adults with a mentally ill parents. Dedicated sessions organized by representatives of academic institutions aimed at familiarizing the participants with their work will be facilitated during each meeting. Furthermore, various support groups and workshops will be conducted on relevant EU policies impacting people with mental health problems and their caregivers.

Project Website

https://share4carers.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 51550 Eur

Project Coordinator

Dynami Zois & Country: EL

Project Partners

• CHILDREN OF MENTALLY ILL PARENTS – Associazione di Promozione Sociale
• GAZIANTEP UNIVERSITESI
• EUROPESE FEDERATIE VAN FAMILIEVERENIGINGEN VAN PSYCHIATRISCH ZIEKE PERSONEN IVZW
• Greek Carers Network EPIONI
• FONDAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE DON LUIGI DI LIEGRO ONLUS
• Centre Neuro Psychiatrique Saint-Martin