How to support young people living with parental mental illness
Our Time has collaborated with University College London’s digital learning platform FutureLearn to design the first ever programme for professionals working in the health and care sectors on parental mental illness and its impact on children.
Understand how parental mental illness can impact child development
On this course, you’ll build a deeper understanding of the impact a parent’s mental illness can have on a child, and learn how to deliver the support they need. This support is designed to help children and young people develop resilience, overcome adversity and avoid a range of negative outcomes in later life, such as mental ill health.
Learn how to support children living with a parent who has a mental illness
The course begins by teaching you how to identify children living with a carer suffering from mental illness. Given their vulnerability, they may not have the confidence to open up and discuss the issue and the course will equip you with the skills you need to approach and help them open up. You’ll be introduced to various strategies you can share with young people that they can implement in their daily lives to build their resilience.
Explore society’s attitudes towards mental illness
As part of this course, you’ll also explore society’s attitude and perception towards mental health, including the phenomenon of unconscious bias. You’ll feel empowered by the knowledge and skills to critically reflect on the challenges that children who have a parent with a mental illness face and how this impacts their childhood.
Learn from Our Time’s and UCL’s experts
This course is taught by global experts from Our Time, an organisation founded by Dr Alan Cooklin – an internationally recognised expert on children of parents with a mental illness – in collaboration with Professors from UCL.
Visit the FutureLearn website to enrol online and join the course.
