Explores the communication strategies that can be used to talk to parents, children and families about parental mental health issues.

Provides a range of audit tools for front line managers to gauge the readiness of their staff to implement the ‘Think Family’ guidance. It also identifies the key drivers needed by strategic managers to target action at a local level, identify the barriers to change and potential solutions.

Explores the key principles of working in partnership with parents.

Explores the impact of parental mental illness on all family members. Also looks at child development stages and some common diagnoses, interventions and treatments for mental illness.

This is a paper included in the proceedings of the Living and Learning, Learning and Teaching: mental health in higher education conference held at Lancaster University in 2010. Influential social and recovery models form key mandates for mental health education today. These models advocate a shift from traditional notions and approaches linked to mental illness, to service users’ active empowerment and control over their lives and symptoms. This short paper questions, however, how far the emphasis of these models on autonomy takes account of service user experiences. May be of use in informing thinking when planning the content and emphasis of teaching about mental health.