Mental health and help-seeking of parents of children with psychiatric illness

Abstract

Background: A child with significant mental health problems evokes significant stress for the parent. We interviewed parents about their help-seeking experiences for the child's problem and assessed them for common mental health problems. Objectives: To study parental mental health in the presence of psychiatric illness in their child and to document pathways of care traversed before reaching the Psychiatrist Materials and Methods: After Institutional Ethics Committee's permission, we assessed the parents of 35 children coming to child psychiatry Out-patient Department. A semi-structured proforma and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21) were used. A descriptive analysis of continuous and nominal variables was done, followed by comparative statistics. Results: Thirteen out of 35 parents (37.14%) had significant mental health problems,10 of them were moderate to severe. Distressed parent often had a child above 12 years of age (7 out of 10). Multiple nonmedical help-seeking was common. This was often due to lack of information than due to stigma. More boys than girls were seen in the patient population. Diagnoses in children varied; Neurodevelopment disorders were seen in 45.7%. We found parental mental health was worse in the case of primary psychiatric disorders in children like anxiety and mood disorders than neurodevelopment disorders. Conclusion: A significant number of parents have stress-related and neurotic symptoms after the onset of psychiatric illness in their child. Fathers who have significant mental health issues should be cared for. We can routinely screen for parental psychopathology in child psychiatric cases for better outcomes and to provide better family support.