The Bidirectional Impact of Co-Existing Mental Illness in Families

This thesis has sought to examine the previously un-researched interplay of mental illness in families where both a parent and child experience mental health problems. The study has incorporated four papers focusing on the key research questions: prevalence of mental illness in parents of children attending a regional mental health service; impacts of parental mental illness on children’s recovery trajectory; how parents with a mental illness experience life in a family where a child has a mental illness; and how children with a mental illness experience life in a family with a parent with a mental illness.