More Than Their Problems;
Growing up with parents with mental health difficulties.

Sky Works has joined with Oolagen Community Services, a publicly funded children’s mental health centre in Toronto, to create a documentary and educational tool kit that casts light on the experience of children and adolescents whose parents or caregivers have had serious mental health difficulties.

The project will document their stories to acknowledge the difficulties they have faced, reveal the skills and knowledge of children and family members in these situations, and the many facets of the relationships between parents and child. The documentary will show that parents with serious mental health concerns continue to love and cherish their children, and also how other significant figures in children’s lives play important caring roles during times of crisis.

Through Oolagen’s research with young people, parents and grandparents, it has been identified how children and youth are able to create comfort and safety to move their lives forward and to learn from their experiences in life.

Children and parents live in diverse contexts. Frontline staff who work in public agencies where there is no fee for service, see many marginalised young people and families. We can see that low-income mothers appear to be at greater risk of having children taken into care when the parents are experiencing mental health difficulties. Perhaps this is because low-income families have fewer resources (money, housing, etc.) to get them through the tough times.

For many newcomers the problem of isolation is heightened as many families live far away from friends or family who might otherwise be invited to help look after children.

There are times when parents themselves call child protection agencies and ask for help. We have been told their intention is to get support, not to have children taken into care. Sometimes, child protection workers can become significant allies for these parents and children. Mothers have told us that when they feel valued as parents, and are not fearful that their children will be taken from them, they will work cooperatively and positively with workers to insure the best care. Other times, and we’d say too often, parents feel diminished by the experience of seeking help and, in fact, they are relegated to a secondary position with respect to professionals and what they know and can do for children.

Our hope is that we will be able to influence the practices of child protection workers as well as school personnel and other professionals engaged with families facing mental health difficulties. Through documenting the skills and knowledge of young people in families which have parents with mental health difficulties and developing alternate storylines, we believe we can challenge the ideas and practices which deliberately or inadvertently minimise the role these parents can play in lives of their children.

This documentary will offer many possibilities for young people and parents to link their lives and experiences to others and to contribute to a ‘second story’ for families with parents with mental health difficulties.