Safeguarding Children of Parents with Mental Health Issues
In many cases parental mental illness will not adversely affect a child’s developmental needs. However, it is essential to assess the implications of parental mental illness for each child in the family.
There are several circumstances which may affect the safety and development of children whose parents have mental health problems. This conference will look at how frontline social workers and other agencies can work together to positively safeguard children who have parents that are affected by mental health issues.
There have been a spate of cases reported in the news recently were parents have killed their children while seemingly to be suffering from mental health issues/depression/stress. Historically, social workers try to work with families to keep them together; lately there is a clear shift in thinking at local level. This conference will examine how is this affecting practice and how thresholds for safeguarding children being re-defined.
