Illuminating patients with children up to 18 years of age – A 1-day-inventory study in a psychiatric service

Abstract

This study reports the possibility of accomplishing a survey in an ordinary psychiatric service organization to identify the children and the adolescents in families with a parent with mental illness and to highlight the number of patients in psychiatric treatment with little or virtually no contact with their minor children. The prevalence of patients being parents to minor children was 36% in the total sample consisting of 137 patients, from both inpatient and outpatient services, participating in the survey. Three of four patients were living together with the children. A higher proportion of patients in the outpatient unit were parents to minor children, and more often lived together with them. There were no differences in prevalence of patients with minor children according to sex or diagnostic subgroup. However, female patients more often and patients with a psychosis diagnosis more seldom had the custody of the children. A majority of the patients had communicated with their children about their own situation, showing that psychiatric patients care a lot about the situation of their children, although, according to the patients, the psychiatric services only take an active part in this information in a minority of the cases. The study may be found to be a basis for inspiring structured interventions and treatments programmes, including the minor children of the adult patients seeking psychiatric treatment. Prevention of mental disorders in the oncoming generation is an important issue for all psychiatric professionals, especially in co-operation between adult and child/adolescent psychiatric services.

• Child/adolescent psychiatry
• Co-operation
• Minor children
• Psychiatric patients
• Surveys