Research & Best Practice
 Getting it Right for Young CarersThe Young Carers Strategy for Scotland 2010-2015
Produced for the Scottish Government
by APS Group Scotland
Published by the Scottish
Government, July, 2010
This document is also available on
the Scottish Governments website: www.scotland.gov.uk
The Scottish Government and COSLA
are determined to ensure that carers are supported to manage their caring
responsibilities with confidence and in good health, and to have a life of
their own outside of caring. We are pleased to have worked together with a
range of interests, including Health Boards, the national carer organisations
and carers in developing this strategy. It will build on the support already in
place and take forward the recommendations of the landmark report, Care 21: The
Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland.
We recognise carers as equal
partners in the delivery of care in Scotland and fully acknowledge
carers‟ expertise, knowledge and the quality of care they give. With
appropriate support, especially support delivered early to prevent crisis,
caring need not have an adverse impact on carers.

 Barnardos: Family Minded - Supporting children in families affected by mental illness.Published by Barnardos UK
Family Minded is based on the experiences of a
number of Barnardo's services that work with children whose lives are affected
by parental mental ill-health. It is informed by the academic literature in
this fi eld. We explore the challenges of parental mental illness for both
policy and practice, addressing mental health policy and practice in all four
nations of the UK.
A wide range of Barnardo's services work with children and
young people whose parents live with a mental illness. These include services
for young carers; children's centres; parent education projects; behaviour
support; family centres; help for people with substance abuse problems, and
psychological support. www.barnardos.org.uk 
 Principles and Actions for Services and People Working with Children of Parents with a Mental IllnessPrepared by the Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Children of Parents With A Mental Illness (COPMI)
COPMI Principles and Actions Consultation Paper, April 2003
This document marks an important milestone in the COPMI
project. Following broad ranging consultations across Australia and an
extensive literature search, a Discussion Document was developed and widely
circulated for comment. Formal responses were received, emanating from all
states and territories, from local and national bodies, and from individuals
and groups of consumers, carers, young people and service providers across a
range of sectors.
Consultations relating to the Discussion Document were
also held with children and young people living in urban and rural areas of
Australia, who have a parent with a mental illness. This draft document is the
culmination of the consultation process, and service providers at the
individual, team, organisation and systems level will now subject the action
statements contained within it to review and evaluation. 
Supporting Families with a Mentally Ill Parent: European Perspectives on Interagency CooperationRachael Hetheringtin & Karen Baistow, Dept Od Social Work, Brunel University, UK (3 July 2001)This paper reports on the findings of a cross-country comparison of
cooperation between services for community mental health and chils protection
in 11 states. The authors consider the implications of the findings for English
practice.
A Research Study of Young Carers: The development of a recording tool for agencies to identify young carers (Final Report).Published in November 2007 by the Ministry of Health.The Children's Issues Centre, on behalf of Carers New
Zealand, undertook this research project. The Ministry of Health funded the
project. The review of literature describes the emerging field of young carers
research that is now reasonably well established in the UK, has begun to
develop in Australia, but is a new topic of study in NZ.
The Addiction Environment: The Impact on Children and Young People Living in Families with Addiction Problems.Trish Gledhill - (2002). Children and young people’s environments (99-111). Dunedin, New Zealand: Children’s Issues CentreThis paper addresses the impact that an environment has
upon children both in terms of the factors that place children at risk and the
factors existing in home, school and community environments that provide
resilience from harm. The material presented in this paper will be based on the
presenter's book 21 Fun Street, Kool Kids - Therapeutic Programmes for
Children Living with Addiction. Other current literature and research will
be included. Children living in these family environments have limited access
to support and specialist services. Services continue to focus predominantly on
the identified adult for treatment without considering the needs of the child
in this context. The implications for policy and practice to address these
needs are discussed and a therapeutic group environment is described that
provides opportunities for these children to develop their strengths and
resources.
Making alcohol and drug treatment for young people a priority is an essential investment in New Zealand’s future.National Committee for Addiction Treatment - POSITION STATEMENT JUNE 2009
The National Committee for Addiction Treatment (NCAT)
is the national voice of the addiction treatment sector, representing treatment,
education, policy, and other interests.
Our goals are to double the capacity of New Zealand’s
addiction treatment sector within the next three years, broaden the range of
treatment options available, and improve access to
treatment.
Impacts on Children and Young People of Parental Mental Illness
Young Carers, young Victims, or young Survivors?: impacts on, and responses of children of parents with mental illnessAlan Cooklin, Consultant in Family Psychiatry, Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care (NHS)Trust.
It is
timely to stop and think what is meant when statistics and descriptive
narrative about young carers are cited.
Whilst
it is necessary to define children in this situation as young carers – because
some resources are identified for this group – the term itself is problematic.
It tends to sanitise the often quite unacceptable and intolerable demands being
made on some children and young people. Most children and young people who have
a parent with mental illness will not think of themselves as carers, even if they
are lucky enough to attend a ‘Young Carers’ programme. They may think of
themselves as surviving, as lonely and isolated, and of suffering all the
common experiences listed below…
CHAPTER 1 2 - Children of Parents with Mental Illnessby Alan Cooklin (2006) - From Children in Family Contexts, Second edition: Perspectives on Treatment, edited by Lee Combrinck-GrahamIn this chapter I briefly review the evidence for the impacts of parental mental illness on children and then summarize these impacts as well as some of their needs as identified by a particular group of children and young people.
Finally, I consider a number of contexts in which children’s experience of, as well as misconceptions and fears about, a parent’s mental illness can be both discussed and “put in their place” in a way that can make the illness more manageable for a child.
UQ Research Finds A Mother's Mental Health Can Impact On ChildrenSummary of Research at the University of Queensland in Australia by Dr Belinda LloydUQ Research Finds A Mother's Mental Health Can Impact On Children
Teenagers whose mothers have mental health impairments are likely to suffer behavioural problems, UQ research has found.
Using data from the Mater‐University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), recent PhD graduate Belinda Lloyd studied maternal mental health and its impact on children.
The MUSP is a longitudinal study of more than 7000 mothers and their children born at Brisbane's Mater Hospital between 1981‐83.
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