Dan Florin Stanescu

Children of Parents with Acute Central Nervous System Injuries: Assessment of Mental Health Needs and Evaluation of an Innovative Preventive Family Intervention Dan Florin Stanescu

It has long been known that somatic illness in a parent is a risk factor for later psychiatric disorders in children, and despite this, little attention has been paid to children's mental health. Children reactions being exposed to an ill parent suffering for acute central nervous system injury are insufficiently known, studies being almost nonexistent. This book, therefore, provides an in-depth analysis of data concerning types and frequencies of mental health problems in children, and aims to specify interaction modalities of specific risks and protective factors, to evaluate attitudes toward preventive intervention, as well as to evaluate an innovative family counselling intervention in an experimental controlled trial. The results suggest a number of interventions which may reduce the negative effects of parental acute central nervous system injury on a child. Thus, interventions aimed at enhancing affective responsiveness, involvement and communication in the family could be helpful. Specifically interventions aimed at helping parents to cope with the situation and to decrease individual parental depressive symptoms may work to help children with their psychosocial outcome.