Maria Afzelius1, Margareta Östman1, Maria Råstam2,3, Gisela Priebe4,5. 1. a Department of Social Work, Faculty of Health and Society , Malmö University , Malmö , Sweden. 2. b Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry , Lund University , Lund , Sweden. 3. c Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry , Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden. 4. d Department of Psychology , Lund University , Lund , Sweden. 5. e Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine , Barnafrid - National Competence Centre in Child Abuse, Linköping University , Linköping , Sweden.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A parental mental illness affects all family members and should warrant a need for support. AIM: To investigate the extent to which psychiatric patients with underage children are the recipients of child-focused interventions and involved in interagency collaboration. METHODS: Data were retrieved from a psychiatric services medical record database consisting of data regarding 29,972 individuals in southern Sweden and indicating the patients' main diagnoses, comorbidity, children below the age of 18, and child-focused interventions. RESULTS: Among the patients surveyed, 12.9% had registered underage children. One-fourth of the patients received child-focused interventions from adult psychiatry, and out of these 30.7% were involved in interagency collaboration as compared to 7.7% without child-focused interventions. Overall, collaboration with child and adolescent psychiatric services was low for all main diagnoses. If a patient received child-focused interventions from psychiatric services, the likelihood of being involved in interagency collaboration was five times greater as compared to patients receiving no child-focused intervention when controlled for gender, main diagnosis, and inpatient care. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric services play a significant role in identifying the need for and initiating child-focused interventions in families with a parental mental illness, and need to develop and support strategies to enhance interagency collaboration with other welfare services.
BACKGROUND: A parental mental illness affects all family members and should warrant a need for support. AIM: To investigate the extent to which psychiatricpatients with underage children are the recipients of child-focused interventions and involved in interagency collaboration. METHODS: Data were retrieved from a psychiatric services medical record database consisting of data regarding 29,972 individuals in southern Sweden and indicating the patients' main diagnoses, comorbidity, children below the age of 18, and child-focused interventions. RESULTS: Among the patients surveyed, 12.9% had registered underage children. One-fourth of the patients received child-focused interventions from adult psychiatry, and out of these 30.7% were involved in interagency collaboration as compared to 7.7% without child-focused interventions. Overall, collaboration with child and adolescent psychiatric services was low for all main diagnoses. If a patient received child-focused interventions from psychiatric services, the likelihood of being involved in interagency collaboration was five times greater as compared to patients receiving no child-focused intervention when controlled for gender, main diagnosis, and inpatient care. CONCLUSIONS:Psychiatric services play a significant role in identifying the need for and initiating child-focused interventions in families with a parental mental illness, and need to develop and support strategies to enhance interagency collaboration with other welfare services.
Authors: Vera Clemens; Oliver Berthold; Andreas Witt; Cedric Sachser; Elmar Brähler; Paul L Plener; Bernhard Strauß; Jörg M Fegert Journal: Sci Rep Date: 2020-09-22 Impact factor: 4.379