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How can primary school settings support children of parents with a mental illness?

How can primary school settings support children of parents with a mental illness?

Highlights

  • On-demand

  • 5 hours

  • Intermediate

Description

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Describe the impact of parental mental health difficulties on children, how to accurately identify those children and how to respond to them

  • Identify the main challenges of working with parents who have known mental health difficulties and apply strategies to overcome them

  • Recognise the expectations and responsibilities facing school staff who are designated to support these children and their families

  • Reflect on the emotional toll of this work and explore psychological strategies for supporting staff wellbeing

  • Evaluate the different ways primary school settings can support children impacted by parental mental illness through the embedding of a whole-family and whole-school approach

Who's it for?

This course is designed for all professionals working with children in a primary school setting. It will be of particular interest to teachers, pastoral support leads, educational psychologists (EPs) and designated safeguarding leads (DSLs). 

This course is also suitable for social workers, youth workers and wider community members who have an interest in improving their knowledge of children who have a parent with a mental illness.

course Content

6 sections•80 lessons
Week 1 - The experiences of school staff working with children of parents with mental health difficulties19 lessons
  1. Welcome to the course - Dr Emily Brees
  2. Welcome to the course - Kat Rowe
  3. Learning with us
  4. Your professional background
  5. Welcome to week 1
  6. Introduction to Emily's research
  7. Who is Our Time Charity?
  8. The scale of parental mental illness
  9. National context
  10. Legislative context
  11. Professional context
  12. Reflection: Parental mental illness in context
  13. The research
  14. Participant profiles
  15. Have you encountered children with parents with a mental health illness in your setting?
  16. Introduction to the themes
  17. Summary of week 1
  18. Reflection
  19. Week 1 assessment
Week 2 - Compelled to care16 lessons
  1. Welcome to week 2
  2. Perceived impact on children
  3. The impact of parental mental illness on children’s externalising and internalising behaviours
  4. Making sense of the impact and knowing how to identify children with a parent with a mental illness
  5. Compelled to provide safety
  6. Attachment theory
  7. Creating a nurturing learning environment
  8. Reflection: What is the appropriate response?
  9. Advocating for a shared understanding
  10. The importance of talking
  11. The stigma of mental health and mental illness
  12. Exploring social stigma and its impact
  13. Free resource addressing stigma
  14. Summary of week 2
  15. Reflection
  16. Week 2 assessment
Week 3 - Journeying with families12 lessons
  1. Welcome to week 3
  2. Challenges working with parents
  3. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
  4. A whole family approach
  5. KidsTime Workshops
  6. Efforts to build trust
  7. Opening up conversations
  8. Practical tips for working with families
  9. Do you feel confident talking to parents experiencing mental health difficulties? 
  10. Summary of week 3
  11. Reflection
  12. Week 3 assessment
Week 4 - Expectations to find solutions10 lessons
  1. Welcome to week 4
  2. Overwhelming demands
  3. Object Relations Theory
  4. Who is responsible?
  5. Weight of responsibility
  6. How can school policies promote better outcomes for this group?
  7. Embedding a whole-school approach
  8. Summary of week 4
  9. Reflection
  10. Week 4 assessment
Week 5 - Frustrated, fearful and fighting alone19 lessons
  1. Welcome to week 5
  2. Hopeless and powerless
  3. Number of education professionals describing themselves as stressed
  4. Working with families who experience distress and the impact on professionals
  5. Uncontained emotions and fighting alone
  6. Protecting our mental health
  7. Fighting alone
  8. Cross-curricular delivery
  9. Need for coping strategies
  10. Containment and secondary trauma
  11. Staff wellbeing
  12. Implications for practice overview
  13. Working with a family-focused, systemic approach
  14. Creating policies within schools that work to reduce stigma and enable a shared understanding
  15. Developing the mental health literacy and confidence of school staff
  16. Providing containment for school staff working with families in distress
  17. Summary of week 5
  18. Reflection
  19. Week 5 assessment
Reflections on the course and next steps4 lessons
  1. Final reflection
  2. End of course quiz
  3. Summary and next steps
  4. Free additional resources

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