Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.
(Publication Archives)

Community Connections, Fall 2002

The Invisible Children’s Project: A Family-Centered Intervention for Parents with Mental Illness
By Helen Weltin, Information Center Coordinator, MHANYS (Based on Recent Research Findings)

Despite the fact that a majority of adults diagnosed with mental illness are, or will become, parents, few programs or services exist to meet the needs of these parents and their children. The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) recently issued a study of one of the few programs available to families in which a parent has a mental illness, the Invisible Children's Project (ICP). A nationally recognized program of the Mental Health Association in Orange County, the Invisible Children's Project provides home-based, family-centered case management services. The study, which examined how ICP benefited some of the most at-risk families enrolled in the program.

The study took a look at eight families who were currently receiving ICP services at the time of the study, had been receiving services for at least one year, and who had a history of involvement with the Department of Social Service (DSS). The researchers interviewed parents, ICP case managers, and DSS caseworkers; examined ICP files; and assessed service costs for both ICP and DSS services. ICP and DSS targeted eight outcomes. Researchers found that for each outcome the majority of families improved or remained the same. None of the families demonstrated evidence of deterioration on any outcome during their involvement with ICP.
All families showed the improvement with respect to medical and mental health care, with all families receiving needed mental health, substance abuse, and/or parenting interventions. In only two of the families did a parent require psychiatric hospitalization, and in those cases the period of hospitalization lasted for a much shorter time than the parents typically experienced before becoming involved with ICP. Prior to becoming involved with ICP all the families were actively involved in the child welfare system, two of the families had children in foster care before ICP involvement but by the time of this study, after the families had been receiving ICP services for at least a year, all children had returned home and were in the custody of their parents. Each DSS worker interviewed for the current study stated unequivocally that the children involved could not have been returned home or maintained in the home without ICP intervention and supports.

Improvement was reported for most of the families in parenting, securing better and more stable housing, school attendance for the children, in the employment status of the parents, and an increase in the quality and strength of the families' social support networks.

"DSS workers readily acknowledged that ICP involvement allowed DSS to "close cases" that would other wise not be closed, and to redirect resources to other needy families. Family -centered, strength-based services proved to be a powerful and precious resource for the parents with mental illness interviewed for the current study, as well as for the child welfare system and providers that worked with them."

Services provided to families by ICP include 24-hour family case management; referrals to community resources; advocacy with schools, child welfare agencies, and courts; family crisis planning, respite childcare; access to financial assistance; parenting education; pregnancy and postpartum education; children's art therapy and 24-hour Help line, and supported housing.
The Invisible Children's Project was founded on the assumption that mental illness does not preclude good parenting and that all parents want to be the best parents they can be. ICP emphasizes access to and coordination of multiple services to support the safety and functioning of all family members for as long as necessary. By serving the needs of the entire family ICP has been able to create a trusting relationship between participants which was defined by all stakeholders; ICP, DSS, and most importantly, the parents themselves, as a key ingredient to ICP's success.

This summary was based on a report by the same title prepared for the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by the Mental Health Association in Orange County,, Inc. and the Center for Mental Health Services Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School. Researchers: Beth Hinden, Ph.D., Kathleen Biebel, M.S., Joanne Nicholson, Ph.D., and Liz Mehnert, CSW. Submitted April 15, 2002.

posted 9/17/02