Twenty-two children, ages 5 to 17, described their experiences living within a family that included a parent with a psychiatric disability who was involved in community mental health agency services. The children's descriptions of parents' "good days" and "bad days" were captured in a secondary data analysis of a study that included face-to-face children's interviews. Children also discussed their perceptions of psychiatric disabilities and rehabilitation. Children reported more attention from parents on "good days." They expressed concerns about multiple family stressors and bias associated with psychiatric disability. They had little information about psychiatric disabilities and/or rehabilitation. Children recommended "Get help earlier."

A program evaluation examined mental health literacy levels and coping outcomes for youth (ages 10–16), before and at the end of their participation in a manualized, school-based mental health literacy program called Youth Education and Support (YES). Most of the youth reportedly had a parent or other family member with a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety, and/or substance abuse. The mental health literacy levels of program participants from pre to post were evaluated with the developing Knowledge of Mental Illness and Recovery (K-MIR) scale. This scale was validated using item-response theory, demonstrating good psychometric properties. Youth answered two coping questions about their use of positive coping during the program and coping skills compared from pre to post intervention. Findings revealed that youth levels of mental health literacy increased significantly from pre to post program participation. Over 90% of the youth reported an improved use of positive coping strategies from pre to post intervention. The program appeared to deliver enhanced levels of literacy and coping for this sample of youth. The scale appeared to be appropriate to measure youth mental health literacy. Recommendations for practice, policy, and research are offered.

Study limitations merit interpretation caution. They are useful for future research, including development and testing of youth psychoeducation programs with longer interventions, more emphases on coping, parent-inclusion, and larger samples using randomized, experimental designs. Suggestions for research, practice, and policy are provided.

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Research substantiates children of parents with mental disorders including substance abuse face increased risk for emotional and behavioral problems. Although evidence suggests that support programs for children enhance resiliency, recruiting children to these groups remains problematic. This study identifies successful recruitment strategies for prevention programs for children of parental mental illness. The participants were recruited from an international network of researchers. E-mail invitations requested that researchers forward a web-based questionnaire to five colleagues with recruitment experience. Forty-five individuals from nine countries practicing in mental health responded. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis techniques were used. Results: Schools, adult, and youth mental health services were recruitment sources. Nine themes were identified: Relationships, diversified information output, logistics, program consistency, family involvement, recruitment through adults, stigma, recruiting locations, social media. Recruitment barriers were: stigma, inadequate knowledge about parental mental illness and limited time. Transportation to programming was an essential component of successful recruitment.

Millions of children have a parent with a mental illness (COPMI). These children are at higher risk of acquiring behavioural, developmental and emotional difficulties. Most children, including COPMI, have low levels of mental health literacy (MHL), meaning they do not have accurate, non-stigmatized information. There is limited knowledge about what kind of MHL content should be delivered to children. The aim of this exploratory study is to identify the knowledge content needed for general population children and COPMI to increase their MHL. A second aim is to explore content for emerging children’s MHL scales. Researchers created and analyzed a literature review database. Thematic analysis yielded five main mental health knowledge themes for children: (1) attaining an overview of mental illness and recovery; (2) reducing mental health stigma; (3) building developmental resiliencies; (4) increasing help-seeking capacities; and (5) identifying risk factors for mental illness. COPMI appeared to need the same kind of MHL knowledge content, but with extra family-contextual content such as dealing with stigma experiences, managing stress, and communicating about parental mental illness. There is a need for MHL programs, validated scales, and research on what works for prevention and early intervention with COPMI children.

Mentoring is an important process in educating competent professionals. However, little is known about mentors' experiences in social work higher education. Two social work educators reflect on 21 years of mentoring with over 60 social work students. Data are triangulated from the notes of two cross-interviews, separately prepared written descriptions of mentoring experiences, and the professional literature. The mentors identify loss and grief experiences, particularly those that take place during the separation and redefinition phases of the mentoring relationships (Kram, 1983). Especially if future research supports the finding of this study, social work education administrators and faculty need to recognize, acknowledge, and ameliorate potential loss and grief experiences of mentors.

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