[Support for families with a mentally ill parent : Which forms of help do mentally ill parents utilize and which would they like to have?] / Unterstützung für Familien mit einem psychisch erkrankten Elternteil : Welche Hilfen nehmen psychisch erkrankte Eltern in Anspruch und welche wünschen sie sich?

BACKGROUND: In Germany different offers of social support are available for families that are provided by different sectors, e.g., the youth welfare and the healthcare systems. OBJECTIVE: Documentation of the utilized help, child-related factors that are associated with the utilization and the parental desires for support. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Survey of 160 parents undergoing (partial) inpatient treatment in psychiatric hospitals via an oral interview using standardized and semi-standardized instruments. RESULTS: The results show that nonprofessional help by family and friends as well as support offers provided by the healthcare system are used most frequently. Families that perceived their children as more burdened receive more help than families with children judged as being less burdened. There are regional differences especially in the utilization of high-threshold help by the healthcare system. DISCUSSION: Support offers seem to reach families with mental illnesses, especially those that are particularly burdened; however, there are regional differences regarding the utilization of support as well as the wishes for specific support offers.

[Participation and Information in Child and Youth Psychiatry]. / Partizipation und Informationspraxis in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie.

Participation and Information in Child and Youth Psychiatry Participation is part of children's legal rights - even in psychiatric treatment. However, former studies show that most children have barely been informed about their treatment and that their opinion has not been taken into account in any decision making process. Nowadays there is an increased awareness about involving children in the decision making process and in informing them about treatment. This subject has also gathered more importance through legal actions changed in favor of the children. We have investigated to what extend children in in-patient treatment in the child and adolescent psychiatry feel informed about and included in decisions concerning their treatment. N = 114 children of the age between 12-18 years have been asked via a written survey. Results show that more than half of the young people feel that they do have the possibility to take part in decision-making. Only a third of the participants felt sufficiently informed before and during their hospital stay.

[School Attendance of Children with Mental Health Problems]. / Schulbesuch psychisch kranker Kinder.

School Attendance of Children with Mental Health Problems School can support a child's resilience as well as be a risk to the child's mental health. However school is an indicator of social participation, an aspect that flourished especially in the debate about inclusion. In this paper assistance opportunities are being discussed that are established to support children with a psychological disease in school. Three of the different concepts of funding priorities for special educational needs in the German system will be presented: "Förderschwerpunkt emotionale und soziale Entwicklung" (special needs in emotional and social development), "besonderer Förderbedarf "(special needs) and "Schulbegleitung" (school assistants). Also, the conditions for students of schools in hospitals and clinics will be analyzed and the reintegration process back to home school will be considered. It becomes unequivocal that there is little data about special assistance opportunities and that law structures in the federal states of Germany differ from each other and are partly unclear. The involvement of the three systems school, child and youth welfare service and child and youth psychiatry demands solid structures of communication and cooperation and a common continuous work across systems' borders during the child's school years.