title: Community mental health care for women with severe mental illness who are parents.
abstract: Women with SMI are involved in childbearing and childrearing, but may have problems with parenting related to symptoms, lack of knowledge and skills, or lack of environmental supports. They may need intensive services to manage their mental illness and to parent to the best of their abilities. Preliminary research suggests that mental health interventions can improve family functioning, but that these services are not widely available in community mental health systems. This paper describes services to help clients who are parents, which includes integration of adult's and children's services, long-term, home-based parent training, and linkage with community supports.
authors.affiliation: New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, Concord 03301, USA. Mary.F.Brunette@dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Mary F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Brunette
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dean
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology