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Invisible Children's Project

Seventy-five percent of women and of men with serious mental illnesses are parents. The negative impact of their illness on their children can include trauma, life-long mental health problems, behavioral and learning difficulties, and socialization deficits -- all compounded by the silence, shame and stigma of mental illness. The children of parents who have mental illnesses are often "invisible" to mental health service providers, children's advocates, friends and neighbors, schools, and society at large:

  • These parents may be withdrawn, have limited ability to nurture or display erratic and unpredictable behaviors; they may be abusive or neglectful.
  • Children of these parents may feel guilty that they are unable to take care of their parents, and/or that they were the cause of the mental illness.
  • Children may have inappropriate responsibilities placed on them due to their parents' illness, i.e., the “parentalized child.”
  • They often don't know that their parents are mentally ill, and think their home life is normal.
  • Children may undergo the trauma of multiple separations from parents if parents are incapacitated due to their illness or are hospitalized.
  • Children have higher likelihood of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or mental illnesses themselves.
  • Many of these families lack social supports and are isolated.

  • Most (70%) parents with mental illnesses lose custody of their children – a tragedy for all concerned, and one which is preventable if better support for both parents and children could be provided at earlier stages.

MHA's Invisible Children's Project has woked to identify the number of families in Hawai`i in which a parent with mental illness is raising minor children, train Department of Health and Department of Human Services case managers, develop a crisis planning protocol for children's care in case of parent's incapacitation, and raise awareness of this issue with the public and within several systems of care.

We believe much more remains to be done. Additional supports for these families are needed: parenting education/training, mental health care for children, social support, and respite care. Underlying this is the critical need for Hawaii's systems of care to become aware of these families and of the children, and to work together to help them.

To download a copy of this information click here
Invisible Children's Story

A woman had to raise her siblings beginning when she was 21 years old when she discovered her twin 15-year-old sisters living alone after being abandoned in another state by their widowed mother who had severe schizophrenia. Their younger brother remained at home with their mother; he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in an institution.

Renowned ukulele master Roy Sakuma revealed a childhood of neglect and terror with a mother and brother who had schizophrenia. His way to cope was to get in trouble and drop out of high school.

A young woman and her siblings were put into foster care, not learning until decades later that their mother had mental illness. Growing up, she thought the abuse, chaos, and neglect at home were merely a “Filipino thing.”

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Copyright 2009 Mental Health America of Hawaii