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Summer 2010 | Vol 13 No 4

Research update

Mark de la Hey

Children of psychiatric clients benefit from nurse attention

Children of parents with mental illness are known to be at increased risk of mental health and behavioural disorders later in life. However, research from the University of Kuopio in Finland indicates that nurses, who have frequent contact with clients and their families, can make a significant contribution to improving outcomes for these children. The study results are based on the questionnaire responses of 222 registered mental health nurses (RNs) and 88 practical mental health nurses (MHNs) working in adult psychiatric units in Finnish university hospitals. While most of the nurses reported that they met with the children of clients a few times a year or not at all, 95 per cent of RNs and 96 per cent of practical MHNs said they regularly collected information about the children. All nurses reported that they sought to guarantee the children’s safety and arrange care for them when necessary. Sixty-eight per cent of RNs and 70 per cent of MHNs took the time to explain the parent’s illness to the children. However, only 46 per cent of nurses talked to the children about their fear of becoming mentally ill themselves. RNs were more likely to discuss the parent’s situation with children if they were parents themselves, or if they were older, had 20 or more years of experience, were divorced or widowed, used family-centred care or had further family education. The authors conclude that family-centred care increases nurses’ interaction with children and increases their ability to “implement preventive child-focused family work into practice.”

Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, March 2010, 24 (1): 65–74. Teija Korhonen et al., Department of Nursing Science, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland.