Mental health literacy for children with a parent with a mental illness

Promoting mental health literacy is an effective strategy to protect the wellbeing of parents with mental illness and their children. Mental health literacy is part of health literacy; it is defined as “one’s level of understanding about mental health attitudes and conditions, as well as one’s ability to prevent, recognize, and cope with these conditions” (Jorm et al., 1997 p. 182). Mental health literacy can be developed by mental health providers discussing mental illness, recovery, and coping with parents and family members, including children. Increased mental health literacy leads to engagement in mental health promotion and (for the child) prevention focused activities (Beardslee, Solantaus, Morgan, Gladstone, & Kowalenko, 2013).