Prevalence of parental mental illness in Australian families

AIMS AND METHOD To provide multiple estimates of the numbers of Australian and Victorian families and children living in families where a parent has had a mental illness.We used theAustralian Bureau of Statistics Victorian Mental Health Branch service usage and data collected from 701community participants to triangulate prevalence information. RESULTS According to population estimates, 23.3% of all children in Australia have a parent with a non-substance mental illness, 20.4% of mental health service users have dependent children and 14.4% of the community study participants report having at least one parent with a mental illness. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The multiple prevalence estimates of the numbers of children in families with parental mental illness provide fundamental information for psychiatric policy, planning and programming.