Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) is sharing a video it has created for children who may have a parent with a mental illness.
The educational video was developed in partnership with the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society and the Windsor Essex County Health Unit.
A $50,000 innovation grant from the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health allowed the project to be completed.
Project Lead Dr. Jennifer Voth is a Research Associate at HDGH and says a series of workshops identified there was a gap in helping these children.
"Children and youth needed age appropriate information and education about mental illness and their parents' mental illness and how they can cope with those experiences," explains Dr. Voth.
She says the video is able to help the children understand what's going on with their parents.
"It can relate to initiating coping and help seeking" says Dr. Voth. "And it can help correct any misconceptions that they might have about their parent's mental illness. Specifically that they themselves are to blame for their parent's behaviour or their illness."
She says they focused on one age group, but it can have broader uses.
"The information that's included in the video is targeted towards youth ages eight to 13 years old" explains Dr. Voth. "But our hope is that parents will use this video to start a discussion with their children about mental illness."
Dr. Voth says they're hoping the care community for mental illness will use the video as a tool to help families cope.
She says there is an information card at the end with specific local information, but the video will be usable anywhere.