eLearning: Parental mental health and families
Published 2011
These elearning resources are freely available to all. They provide audio, video and interactive technology to assist in exploring the nature of parental mental health and its impact on families.
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Introducing the family modelAn introduction to the family model and the impacts of some common risks, stressors and protective factors. |
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Think child, think parent and think familyExplores the impact of parental mental illness on all family members. Also looks at child development stages and some common diagnoses, interventions and treatments for mental illness. |
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Working together with parentsExplores the key principles of working in partnership with parents. |
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Working together with professionalsExplores the challenges facing workers in maintaining a multi-agency approach and how the Family Model can be used to strengthen professional working relationships. |
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Care planning and reviewLooks at what makes an effective plan as well as considering how reviewing processes can be used to ensure changing needs are assessed and plans modified as a result. |
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InterventionsExplores screening, active signposting and early intervention, and their importance in addressing the needs of all parts of the family system. |
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Managing complexity and leading practiceProvides a range of audit tools for front line managers to gauge the readiness of their staff to implement the ‘Think Family’ guidance. It also identifies the key drivers needed by strategic managers to target action at a local level, identify the barriers to change and potential solutions. |
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Communicating with familiesExplores the communication strategies that can be used to talk to parents, children and families about parental mental health issues. |
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Who they are suitable forOpen
TThis elearning resource is targeted at front line and management staff involved in adult mental health and children’s services. These resources might also be useful for primary care services staff (GPs, Health Visitors, Midwives), Schools – Teachers and support staff and Children’s Centre staff.
The elearning resource can be integrated into the higher education social work curriculum either as directed or self directed study.
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AuthorsOpen
Claire Barcham
Claire Barcham has been a qualified social worker since 1992. Claire has worked mainly in mental health services, is an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) and since 2003 has worked for the Camden and Islington (mental health) NHS Foundation Trust in London as their AMHP Learning and Development Coordinator. Between Nov 2010 and July 2011 she also acted as the Trust’s Safeguarding Manager and Named Professional for child protection purposes.
Claire is the National Chair of the AMHP leads Network, and is currently on secondment to the College of Social Work as their first Professional Practice Development Advisor. Claire was also part of the National Implementation team for the introduction of the amended Mental Health Act in 2008. As a member of the team she wrote specialist materials explaining the changes in law as they applied to AMHP practice, as well as writing and delivering both generic and CAMHS specific training around the country.
Claire continues to work as an AMHP and social worker with Camden Emergency Duty team.
Marie Diggins
Marie is a Senior Practice Development Manager at SCIE and has been a social worker for 25 years, specialising in mental health, and children and families. She has had a number of roles including working as a generic social worker, a carers’ development officer and as a community mental health team manager for many years in the London Borough of Lewisham. She is joint author of ‘Crossing Bridges – Training resources for working with mentally ill parents and their children’ (Mayes et al, 1998). At SCIE she was responsible for developing the national ‘Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network’ in 2004 and is the author of the SCIE ‘Think child, think parent, think family guidance – a guide to parental mental health and child welfare work’ (2009). Marie continues to explore this area of work through her Phd research ‘What works – Researching Success in Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Work’ which will be completed in 2012.
Kate Mayes
Is a children’s services social worker, currently working as an independent reviewing officer in a London borough. She was one of the original authors of the Crossing Bridges training materials, and has continued to provide some training on a freelance basis since publication.
Daphne McKenna
Daphne works as a Child Care Coordinator and Independent Trainer. She is a qualified and experienced social worker, specialising in the area of child protection. She has a particular interest in mental health and the impact on families. Daphne has held a number of posts in Children’s Social Care. She was instrumental in the development of the first mental health resource centre in Lewisham. In 2007 she established Training in Practice, a training company specialising in multi-agency safeguarding training. She was involved in the initial research for the national ‘Think child, think parent, think family guidance – a guide to parental mental health and child welfare work’ (2009) guidance as a practice site lead and more recently as a member of an implementation site steering group.
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SCORM Compliant versionOpen
If you are a member of staff from a Higher Education institution who would like to download the activity for use in a virtual learning environment (VLE),such as WebCT, Blackboard or Moodle you should use the SCORM compliant version above.
Please note that this resource was not designed to export any scores or track progress throughout the resource. Therefore, this resource can be imported into a virtual learning environment and freely accessed by users, but there will be no tracking or grading functionality.
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AccessibilityOpen
This elearning resource has been designed to be accessible to the widest audience possible and reviewed for compliance to accessibility standards by the Digital Media Access Group at the University of Dundee.
This page lists some of the features used to make the resources easier to use. If you are experiencing problems using the resources, or have any questions and comments about their accessibility, please let us know.
Using the resources without a mouse
All materials have been designed to be accessible using the keyboard. Use the Tab key to access navigational elements such as buttons and interactive diagrams. Pop-up windows with scroll bars can be accessed with the tab key, with the scroll-bar being operable via the up and down arrow keys.
Changing the appearance of the resources
If you need to adjust the way the resources appear, a Text Only version has been provided for each resource, allowing you to make changes to the resource's appearance through your browser. For example, you can use your browser to make the text larger, or change the font or colour of the text to suit your personal preferences. For more help on how to do this, visit the BBC's My Web My Way website
Accessing the resources with a screen reader
All resources have a narration of the main text. However if you use a screen reader, we recommend using the Text Only version for each resource. These provide broadly the same information and experience as the Flash version, but currently the nature of some features of the Flash resources mean that these features do not work as required in a screen reader
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AcknowledgementsOpen
SCIE would like to thank the following people:
- Our peer reviewers: Shirley Ewart-Boyle, Adrian Falkov, Judith Lees, Dorian Cole
- Our user testers: Margaret Palmer, Liz Scott
- Barnardo's and the many participants of the programme for allowing us to use extracts from 'Telling it like it is'
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Technical developmentOpen
Programming and graphic design by Cimex Ltd.
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Images and audioOpen
The case studies in this resource use the voices and images of actors. This approach has been adopted to protect the identities of the service users and carers whose accounts have been drawn upon or the accounts have been based on situations indicative of the events or issues being covered.
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Video contentOpen
Some of the video extracts used in the elearning resources are taken from the Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Social Care TV programmes. To view the programmes in full and to see other related programmes on Social Work and Social Care topics please visit Social Care TV.
We have also used extracts from ‘Telling it like it is’ with kind permission from Barnardo’s. ‘Telling it like it’ is part of the Keeping the Family in Mind (KFIM) Pack. The training pack including the full film on DVD can be accessed from the Barnardos website or from the KFIM coordinator Louise Wardale (louise.wardale@barnardos.org.uk).
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CopyrightOpen
All material in these elearning resources, including text, graphics, photographs, video and audio is copyright of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), unless otherwise stated. Use of these resources, and import of the resources into learning management systems, for educational purposes is freely permitted, but commercial use of this learning resource is not authorised unless permission is first obtained from SCIE.
