Research Article: Engaging Parents Affected by Mental Health Problems in Pediatric and Gynecologic Practices—Implications of the KID-PROTEKT Study
Abstract:
Children of parents with mental illness are at higher risk of developing cognitive, mental health or physical health difficulties. Previous studies have described several barriers for reaching parents with mental health problems (MHPs) and their utilization of psychosocial services. We conducted a cluster randomized controlled study in 24 pediatric and gynecologic practices to evaluate KID-PROTEKT, a psychosocial healthcare intervention that comprises a psychosocial assessment to identify families with psychosocial needs and refer them to support services. In this paper, we analyzed whether psychosocially distressed parents with additional MHPs (identified by the PHQ-9 and GAD-7) had higher support needs, could be referred to support and utilized it in comparison to parents with psychosocial burden only. In total, 178 pregnant women and mothers with psychosocial burden were included, of whom 55 had MHPs. Participants with MHPs were distressed in their relationships more often and medical staff rated their level of support needs higher compared to parents without MHPs. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding whether they were referred to support services or utilized the recommended services. All participants were most frequently referred to family or parent counseling/care or childcare assistance. The results indicate that despite existing barriers, parents with MHPs could be reached and identified by the KID-PROTEKT psychosocial assessment. A psychosocial intervention like KID-PROTEKT can help to provide support for mentally ill parents.
Introduction:
Worldwide, around one in eight adults exhibit a mental illness [1]. In Germany, the twelve-month prevalence of mental illness among adults has been reported as 27.7% [2]. According to a birth cohort study in Sweden, around 11% of children currently live with a mentally ill parent [3]. A US survey which collected data between the years 2008 and 2014 reported that 18.2% of parents had some mental illness, while 3.8% of parents had a serious mental illness [4]. These statistics indicate that a substantial proportion…
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