PMH Divisional Seminar with guest speaker Dr Abby Dunn

We’re pleased to welcome Dr Abby Dunn as the guest speaker for our May seminar.
The seminar will take place from 12–1pm on Thursday 14th of May in Jean McFarlane Building, Room 2.326.
Please note this will be a hybrid session, and a Teams link will be sent to all registrants for those unable to attend in-person.
Talk Abstract

Identification and support for parents receiving psychiatric inpatient care

Between 12–25% of adult mental health service users are parents; however, under-identification means the true proportion remains unknown. What is well evidenced is that parental mental health difficulties place children at increased risk of adverse outcomes, including a higher likelihood of developing mental health problems themselves, compared with children whose parents are not unwell. Despite this, adult mental health services frequently fail to adequately identify parents or intervene to mitigate these risks.

In this seminar, Dr Abby Dunn will present her work examining provision for psychiatric inpatients with parenting responsibilities. Inpatient admission involves separation of parent and child, which is frequently highly distressing for both. For many families, this separation occurs alongside enduring or chronic mental illness and wider social adversity. Despite this, parents in inpatient settings are among the least likely to be identified or offered support in relation to their parenting role and responsibilities.

Dr Dunn will present findings from studies including one that used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to examine national identification of, and provision for, parents and families across mental health trusts, as well as a co-developed intervention designed to support parents receiving inpatient care. She will also outline her planned programme of work funded by a six-year NIHR Fellowship.

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