ABSTRACT
This book was conceived out of a realisation that the current organisation of mental health services, together with the highly specialised skills of their staff, preclude an integrated approach to the welfare of adults and children. Despite a growing literature about the effects of parental mental health problems on children, we were not aware of many initiatives to identify and respond to these children’s needs. Again, even though it is well known that major psychological problems often occur at transitional phases in people’s development (such as around the birth of a child or during adolescence), there remain few specialised services to respond to such problems.
