Comprehensive Care Plan for Parents of Children with Mental Illness

This report details a comprehensive care plan designed for parents of children experiencing mental illness. The plan emphasizes the importance of parental awareness and proactive support. It introduces four key tasks: journal writing as a therapeutic tool to help children express their emotions, mindfulness exercises to enhance self-esteem and coping mechanisms, mental health awareness quizzes to identify potential issues, and the use of books on mental health to educate children and provide them with the necessary resources. The report highlights the significance of understanding both genetic and environmental factors contributing to mental illness and stresses the need for parents to equip their children with the knowledge and skills to manage their feelings and emotions effectively. The plan aims to provide a holistic approach, fostering resilience and well-being in children with mental health challenges.

Parents with children with mental illness certainly requires to give more attention and care to their children then the
parents who have children who do not have any kind of mental illness. Mental illness in children can occur due to
various factors including genetic and environmental (Eccleston et al., 2015).
Brain chemistry and family history: the biological factors play important role in human body. Mental illness can occur
when there it is present in the genetic history. A child with genetic history of mental illness is prone to develop mental
illness more than children who do not have such history in family.
Social and environmental causes: environment plays vital role in shaping children’s behavior. Children are expected to
develop behaviors that are exposed to them. Witnessing or experience harsh or abusive environment can lead to mental
illness.
Certainly there are various other factors that have a role to play when it comes to understanding the root cause of
mental illness in children. It is important for parents to be aware of the ways that can prevent, protect and help their
children cope with their mental illness. There are four tasks discussed that would provide the ways children with
mental illness can be helped (Ellis, Every-Palmer & Einstein, 2017).
Task 1: Journal writing
Journal writing is much more than simply writing diary. Journal writing is also therapeutic and used as a way of
healing. However developing the habit of writing journals can be helpful in many ways. Mental health is certainly a
very sensitive issue, specifically among children as they are vulnerable to their emotions. Parents must find ways to
understand their children and what causes them mental health illness (Scheff, 2017).
Parents must teach their children to write if they are feeling depressed or anxious.
Step1: Ask them to write as often as possible
Step2: Ask them to include details as much as possible
Step3: Give them other journals to read to get an idea of the ways they can write
Step4: Make divisions in the notepad such as: to do, happiness, frustration, feelings
Step5: help them set goals and the ways the goals can be achieved and when the goal is achieved give them rewards.
Task 2: Mindfulness exercise
Mindfulness has the potential of boosting the quality of human lives in numerous ways. Mindfulness can nurture inner
peace, improve the quality of exercise, facilitate more meaningful relationship with others and enhance self-
confidence. Mental illness has a significant part that is associated with self-esteem. Through mindfulness, children
with mental illness can not only move towards a positive life but also cope with difficult situations (Idusohan‐Moizer
et al., 2015).
Step 1: Take them amidst nature, for walk and for mindful exercise.
Step 2: Help them do mindful pose by exciting them, telling them doing a certain pose can make them brave, strong
and happy in places where they feel safe.
Step 3: making them try superman pose or wonder woman pose.
Step 4: ask them the way they feel after few rounds in order to understand the impact of the exercise on them.
Step 5: Encourage them to pause and focus on present by keeping the attention on their surroundings. This is helpful in
opening their awareness to the information their senses bring in.
Children with mental illness may find it difficult in the initial stages however, they are likely to benefit along with
time.
CARE PLAN FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

Task 3: Mental health awareness quiz
It is important to identify the issues that are the major source of mental illness in children. Parents are required
to be very careful about children’s behavior and the behavior changes. It is important they know if their children are
going through any mental stress or disorder. There are several quizzes that are helpful in identifying the symptoms of
depression, anxiety, stress, hallucination, strange thought, peer pressure and related. Quizzes allow the parents to take a
proactive approach to their children’s wellness. Different tests are designed to provide different results depending on
the children’s response. Therefore, taking quizzes in regard to mental illness (Erickson et al., 2016).
Task 4: Books on mental health
The parents not only hold the responsibility of making sure they are taking care of their children, they also hold the
responsibility of ensuring that their children know the issue well and can manage when they are not around their
parents. Although most parents want to shield their children from confusion or concern, according to the healthcare
professional, educating children as well as teenagers regarding mental illness is essential and helpful (Seligman &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Educating the children about mental illness and giving them right information provides them
with the knowledge and resources that are required by them. It helps them dispel common misconceptions and stigma.
It also provides them with the resources and information that are needed to understand a particular illness and the
reasons they feel the way they do.
Also, the understanding help them to understand better way, making them helpful person and friend as a person.
Reading books on mental illness gives them the knowledge and help them manage their feelings and emotions by
themselves to a great extent.
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