title: Are Different Professionals Ready to Support Children of Parents with Mental Illness? Evaluating the Impact of a Pan-European Training Programme.
abstract: A training package (pre-tested in a pilot phase) about supporting children who have parents with a mental illness and/or with substance misuse (COPMI) was developed and delivered to 131 different professionals from six different European Countries. A questionnaire about importance, awareness and competence on the issue (8 items on knowledge and 15 items on skills) was developed and completed by participants before and after the training. The training was evaluated by participants as generally very successful in terms of improving the importance, awareness and competence of their knowledge and skills, with a statistically significant difference in the pre-/post-analyses (no decreases occurred). Different professional groups performed differently in the pre-training self-rating scores. The participants in some countries were mainly drawn from one professional group (i.e. teachers in Finland, social workers in Germany and psychologists in Poland). It was found that stigma was considered an extremely important concern even before the training, whilst country-specific legal issues were not taken into proper account in the training. Some possibilities for further refinement of the training programme are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Synergia s.r.l. and Department of Decision Sciences, Università L. Bocconi, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viganò
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Marja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaunonen
authors.affiliation: Middlesex University, London, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Dundee, Playfield Institute, NHS Fife, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Nordland Hospital Trust, Bodo, Norway.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Izabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tabak
authors.affiliation: Department of Addiction Medicine and Addictive Behaviour, LVR-Hospital Essen, Hospital of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Scherbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health of the Local Health Authority of Rovigo, Centro Salute Mentale (ULSS 18), Viale Tre Martiri 89, 45100, Rovigo, Italy. zanone.stefano@azisanrovigo.it.
authors.forename: Stefano Zanone
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Poma
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders; D000072858:Psychosocial Support Systems; D057545:Social Stigma; D012944:Social Support; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: COPMI; Prevention; Professional skills; Services; Training