Intervenant : Professeur Giovanni De Girolamo, M.D.
Scientific Director of the St John of God Clinical Research
Centre (IRCCS) in Brescia, Italy and current Head of the Unit of Psychiatric
Epidemiology and Evaluation. He is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at
the Department of Psychology, Catholic University, Milan. Thème : "Children of people with mental disorders "
Résumé :
Mental illness in parents is a biological and environmental risk factor to which young people are exposed. Living with a parent suffering from a mental disorder may have a variety of detrimental consequences, including: (a) the reversal of caregiving (“parentification”), similarly to what happens in children looking after somatically ill parents; (b) the exposure to an adverse environment, where developmental needs of the child (emotional and practical) might be repeatedly neglected due to lack of parental resources or to a compromised family functioning (lack of communication, high expressed emotion, etc..); (c) stigma and discrimination. Young people living in such family contexts often have problems of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, cognitions of shame, guilt, and loneliness, perceptions of lacking social support and social acceptance. Children who have parents suffering from mental disorders are up to two and a half times more likely to experience poorer mental health outcomes than their peers. Given the high toll paid by children having parents suffering from severe mental disorders, it is urgent to develop, test and implement in Europe structured programmes to help these children cope with stressful circumstances and improve their resilience. The main aim of this conference is to provide a comprehensive review of the main areas of needs of these children and indicate the interventions which have been developed and tested so far in different European countries. |
