A SELECTION OF RESEARCH PROJECTS, ARTICLES AND POSTS THAT WE HOPE YOU FIND USEFUL
Parents with Mental and/or Substance Use Disorders and their Children, Volume II Frontiers in Psychiatry Research Topic
Deadlines:
Abstracts encouraged by not required – 24 June 2021
Manuscripts – 28 September 2021
The first Frontiers eBook compilation of papers on parents with mental and/or substance use disorders and their children, published in 2020, included 27 papers, with over 100 contributors from 15 countries. Investigators employed diverse designs and methods to explore the experiences of parents and their families, and to develop and test interventions. While the prior Research Topic was a significant contribution to the field, families living with parental mental and/or substance use disorders remain vulnerable. Their outcomes are compromised by unmet needs and the dearth of policies and programs tailored to their characteristics and circumstances. The proposed second Research Topic provides opportunity to highlight the latest advances in research; further developments in measures and methods; innovation in intervention development, adaptation and testing; and shifts in policy and practice paradigms.
Families living with parental mental and/or substance use disorders continue to face considerable biopsychosocial challenges, with complex pathways to mitigating risk, enhancing resilience and supporting recovery. An ecological, life-span approach to improving outcomes for all family members – infants, children, adolescents and adults who are parents – requires careful consideration of sociocultural conditions, life stages and developmental ages alongside family-focused needs, goals and plans. In addition, community contexts, policy developments and practice innovation play roles in contributing to the wellbeing and functioning of all family members. The risk conveyed to all family members by parental mental and/or substance use disorders is great. Fortunately, the opportunities to intervene are plentiful and varied. However, in many cases, interventions are unspecified, untested and not brought to scale in regional, state or national initiatives. We may have the requisite knowledge to inform policy and practice, but this evidence may not be applied to effect innovation or change, suggesting the need for widespread knowledge translation and dissemination efforts, with significant potential to improve public mental health.
Our continued goal is to bring attention to and address gaps in the research literature. Particular aspects of the identification, treatment and prevention of disorders for family members have been well articulated in some countries, as described in the prior Research Topic. The issues of children and adolescents whose parents live with mental and/or substance use disorders have been the focus of international efforts to explore their experiences, bring attention to gaps in services and, to some extent, develop practice guidelines and test interventions. The area of perinatal maternal mental health has received a great deal of attention, though research and treatment strategies have not necessarily been patient-centered (i.e., informed by input from stakeholders, including mothers themselves). More recently, efforts have been made to explore the impact of children and adolescents (i.e., family experiences) on adults who are parents, and the ways in which success or failure as a parent may contribute to or undermine a parent’s treatment and recovery.
In this Research Topic, we again aim to curate the latest knowledge in (a) development and testing of interventions for all family members (i.e., children, adolescents and adults) living with or who are parents experiencing mental and/or substance use disorders; (b) policy issues relevant to these families, along with testable and tested change strategies; and (c) innovative knowledge translation and dissemination approaches to improving outcomes for vulnerable family members of all ages. We hope to include articles on novel, technology-based solutions with strong conceptual underpinnings, appropriate to rigorous scientific testing. We are looking for contributions at all levels of analysis (e.g., policy and practice, community and individual), suggesting that submissions will reflect the creative, rigorous use of multiple and mixed methods. Our intention is to lay the groundwork for future innovation, toward building an evidence base of effective prevention and intervention approaches for family members who are living with or who are parents with mental and/or substance use disorders.
Keywords: Parents, Children, Mental Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, Families
The Journal of Parent and Family Mental Health
Open access e-Journal to accelerate the translation and dissemination of research knowledge specific to families with parental mental illness to raise awareness, reduce stigma and induce practice and policy change
The Journal of Parent and Family Mental Health is devoted to the translation and dissemination of research knowledge specific to families living with parental mental illness. The idea for an e-journal dedicated exclusively to research and innovation specific to parental mental illness was born from a group of international researchers and change agents committed to enhancing the lives of families living with parental mental illness. This group is called the International Research Collaborative for Change in Parent and Child Mental Health.
See About This Journal for more information or access previous issues via the Issue Archives.
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Also read our most popular papers! All publications have been peer-reviewed by 2 reviewers and published after review from the Editorial board.
They are open access and some have been translated into Spanish.
Spotlight of a Research Team and Project
To be completed
Since around 2006 we started collaborating on local, regional and national COPMI efforts. Clemens Hosman vistited Tromsø in 2004 and the Norwegian team visited his team in the Nederlands in 2005. Karin van Doesum was invited to join the team in Tromsø as a guest researcher, and still holds a 20% position in the research group in Tromsø. This research group works on mental health promotion and prevention for children and young people, and consist of around 20 members. Together we visited Melbourne Australia in 2009. We joined the Prato group in 2013, by invitation from Andrea Reupert and Darryl Mayberry. Several projects and two tenfold publications is the result of our collaboration so far. Our team consists of these people:
PhD., prevention psychologist, Karin van Doesum
For more than 20 year Karin have been involved in the development and implementation of a national program for children of mentally ill parent in the Netherlands. Her special interest is focused on interventions for infants of mentally ill parents, family interventions and pregnant women with mental illness. She also has an interest for online assistance (e-health) of women with postpartum depression and their babies. Her work in Norway has been in a project where a child perspective was implemented an adult mental health clinic in North Norway and in a study on development of tools for GP’s to offer support to children of mentally parents.
Dr. philos, psychologist, Charlotte Reedtz
Charlotte has worked with children and families for 30 years, as a practitioner, court expert and researcher. In her doctoral work she tested an innovative brief parenting intervention in the Incredible Years Program Series. Her special interest in parenting, parenting programs and parent training has expanded to several risk groups, including parents with mental disorders. She initiated the research project on implementing routines to support parents who are patients in the largest adult mental health clinic in North Norway in 2007. The main aim of this project was to implement routines and interventions to improve services offered to COPMi/FaPMI.
Prof., PhD., educational scientist, Camilla Lauritzen
Camilla joined our team as a PhD student in 2009, in Charlottes project. Camillas interest has focused on Child and Youth mental health prevention and promotion, specifically on improving the situation for children at risk. In pursuing this, her research has focused on evaluating child welfare practice and development, strengthening the education of services for children at risk, and to improve services offered to COPMi/FaPMI.
Our research interest in summary:
Child & Adolescent mental health & wellbeing
Parent Training
Evidence Based Practice/Best Practice
Implementing Innovative Interventions in Community Health & Social Care
Evaluating Change of Clinical Practice in Adult Mental Health Care
Evaluating Change of Clinical Practice in Child & Adolescent Community Health & Social Care
Activities Prato research collaborative
The team is involved in several publications together with other members of the Prato group the topic are strategies to recruit children/youngsters for preventive activities, review of line resources for children and youngster and a protocol article about a model for research and intervention promoting wellbeing for children and parents with mental illness.
