Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the research findings of Maynooth University’s centre for mental health and community research into family-focused interventions where there are parental mental health difficulties. The study is known as the PRIMERA programme, the findings of which I launched last week. The university's research programme findings recommend a family-focused approach.

This was funded by the HSE at a cost of almost €500,000. The centre did a huge amount of research over the last five years. It is estimated one in four people will experience mental health difficulty in their life. Parental mental health can typically affect the entire family. It is estimated one in five children have a parent with a mental disorder. Where there are parental mental health difficulties, the risk of children themselves developing mental disorders and impaired lifetime outcomes is higher.

It is recommend that a Think Family policy and practice approach be developed and incorporated urgently as part of the routine adult and child and adolescent mental health services. This programme identified, implemented and evaluated family-focused interventions for families with parents with mental illness. One of the evaluations was that when there was a six- to ten-week programme - this was trialled with I think with 136 families - of between six and ten interventions and meetings with the families and young people involved, the outcome was absolutely fantastic. It is therefore really important we develop this programme and include it in Sharing the Vision.

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