Evaluation of the Let's Talk about Children recovery model for parents in Victorian mental health and family services: Phase 3

“Let's Talk About Children” is an intervention that is applied by practitioners to engage with and support parents who have a mental illness in relation to their families and children. Within the 2-3 session intervention the practitioner engages with the parent about the impact of their illness on their children. The mental health practitioner assists the parent to chart the developmental progress of their children, monitor their wellbeing and to talk to their children about the illness and possible impacts on them and the family. This also involves the practitioner helping the parent to understand the impact of the mental illness on their children along with helping the parent to provide ongoing support to their children. The intervention is implemented in 3 sessions however with practitioner and parent agreement this is reduced to 2 sessions based on their judgement that the 3rd session is not required. Let's Talk sessions are logged by the treating practitioner. Sessions are commonly implemented for 60 minutes once per week. Practitioners are trained in the intervention by completing 4 online modules (1 hour each) along with a follow up 4 hour face to face training session. The face-to-face practitioner training is undertaken within 2 weeks of completing the online modules and the intervention is implemented with parents within 1 month. The face-to-face training is facilitated by a trained experienced practitioner.