Mental Health Fact Sheets

Strengthening Families

Parents living with mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders face the same challenges that all parents face:

• housing,
• employment,
• money management,
• transportation,
• childcare, and more.

They also face challenges specific to their illness:

• medication,
• hospitalization,
• relationships with helpers,
• and stigma, including the belief that people with mental illness should not have or raise children.

Families in which a parent has a mental illness or co-occurring disorders often have unmet service needs that can lead to family instability and disruption. Service systems may view adults with mental illness or co-occurring disorders in complete isolation of their children, and thus are not providing comprehensive, integrated services that could enhance family stability and self-determination. To service providers, the children of parents with mental illness or co-occurring disorders are often "invisible.”