THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN

26-27th November, 2009 - Vilnius, Lithuania,

Children who have parents with mental illness are put at greater risk of experiencing mental disorders, school and adjustment problems.  The family also often lives in a stigmatising environment.

This conference aims to publicise more widely the existence of good practices which support the development of these children, especially to mental health policy makers and to promote their use in medical, psycho-social, school and NGO environments.

The good practices will be drawn from fields such as maternity/early infancy, school (detection/prevention), parenthood training, children facing their parents’ illness (understanding, suppressing feeling of guilt, supporting resilience, psycho-social intervention, respite, and peer to peer groups).

Children’s protection rights, firstly in its legal framework, then in relation to the professional and family environments, will also be examined in the conference.

The conference will attempt to analyse the practice of courts and social services in fields such as parental rights, custody, visitation, home support, temporary shelter and placement.  The conference will address the consequences of the complex situation of families who have a member with mental illness.  The conference may also expose some of the effects of prejudices relating to mental illness.

The conference will endeavour to identify simple forms of co-operation between professionals resulting in a better protection of the children who are either ignored or divided between several agents.  The general view is that children are generally best cared for within their own families whenever that is possible. 

For more information please contact EUFAMI via email: vilnius2009@eufami.org