Being parent is associated with suicidal history in people with serious mental illness enrolled in psychiatric rehabilitation

Parenting and Serious Mental Illness (SMI): A Systematic Review and Metasynthesis

The consequences of Serious Mental Illness (SMI) on parent and child outcomes can be profound. Supporting parents to manage their caregiving roles alongside parental SMI successfully has been recognised as a public health priority. To meet this priority and develop effective and acceptable interventions, it is imperative that parents' experiences and support needs are understood. This systematic review aimed to synthesise qualitative research that explored parents' experiences and perceptions of the impact of SMI on their parenting and their corresponding support needs. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines were followed. Five databases were searched for terms associated with SMI, parenting, and qualitative research. Twenty-nine studies involving 562 parents who experienced SMI met inclusion criteria, and the methodological quality of included studies was appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. After findings were synthesised using thematic synthesis, six themes were identified: (1) The constrained parent, (2) parenting difficulties, (3) the strained child, (4) inescapable threat, (5) combatting threat, and (6) wrap-around support needs. Novel insights into the centrality of SMI-related parenting difficulties and threat perceptions across parent, family, healthcare, and wider social systems on strained parent-child and distanced parent-support relationships were highlighted. Systemic practice change initiatives via compassionate and inclusive system-wide support were recommended.

The central role of self-esteem in the quality of life of patients with mental disorders

In psychiatry, recent years have seen a change of focus from a clinician- to a patient-centered perspective that emphasizes quality of life as a treatment target. As a complex construct, quality of life is composed of multiple dimensions that interact with one-another (e.g. physical and psychological well-being, relationships, autonomy, self-esteem). Here, we used data from the REHABase cohort, which includes N = 2180 patients from 15 psychosocial rehabilitation centers in France, to explore networks of quality-of-life dimensions among six psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental, bipolar, depressive, anxiety, and personality disorders. Stronger connections (edges) involved the Self-Esteem dimension, such as Self-Esteem–Physical Well-Being, Self-Esteem–Autonomy, Self-Esteem–Psychological Well-Being, and Self-Esteem–Resilience. Self-esteem was also consistently retrieved as the most central node (the dimension with the most connections within each network). Between-group tests did not reveal any differences regarding network structure, overall connectivity, edge-weights, and nodes’ centrality. Despite presenting with different symptom profiles, various psychiatric disorders may demonstrate similar inter-relationships among quality-of-life dimensions. In particular, self-esteem may have a crucial inter-connecting role in patients’ quality of life. Our findings could support treatment programmes that specifically target self-esteem to improve patients’ quality of life in a cost-effective way.

A qualitative exploration of stakeholders' perspectives on the experiences, challenges, and needs of persons with serious mental illness as they consider finding a partner or becoming parent

BACKGROUND

While many persons with serious mental illness (SMI) consider intimate relationships and becoming parent as central parts of their lives deeply affecting wellbeing and recovery, others anticipate facing multiple challenges in these life domains. This qualitative study sought to explore the perspectives of persons with SMI and mental health providers (MHPs) with diverse backgrounds and practices on the experiences, challenges, needs and expectations of persons with SMI as they consider finding a partner or becoming parent.

METHODS

For this qualitative study, we conducted five focus groups between March and December 2020 for a total number of 22 participants (nine persons with SMI and thirteen MHPs) recruited from a center for psychiatric rehabilitation and a community mental health center in France. We used the inductive six-step process by Braun and Clarke for the thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Participants reported some challenges related to intimate relationships, stigma/self-stigma, disclosure and decision-making about start a family. Their expectations included: (i) psychoeducation about decision-making about finding a partner and starting a family; (ii) support in making empowered decisions about finding a partner, starting a family or disclosure to a prospective partner or their child; (iii) peer-support interventions; (iv) enhancing coping strategies; (v) integrated service provision including home treatment interventions, training to recovery-oriented practices and access to dedicated resources for providers.

CONCLUSION

In short, intimate relationships and desire to start a family for persons with SMI should be more considered in psychiatric rehabilitation and additional support and interventions should therefore be provided.