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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Susan Barrow, PhD, Epidemiology of Mental Disorders Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Box 102, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, 212-740-5904, barrows@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
Recent studies of mothers with mental illness have documented both the importance they attach to their roles as parents and the stresses this entails, particularly under conditions of residential instability, poverty, and homelessness. Yet parenting receives little acknowledgment or support from the multiple service systems they encounter in seeking to meet their health and mental health, housing and social service needs. For "single" (unaccompanied) homeless women who are separated from their children, issues of motherhood remain all but invisible, and there is virtually no data on how parenting roles are sustained or atrophy, or on factors that facilitate or hinder parenting during brief or extended separations. Based on longitudinal data on a sample of 80 homeless mothers diagnosed with Axis I mental illnesses, this paper documents the residence and care arrangements for the children of separated mothers; describes variations in the circumstances of separation and in the amount of mother-child contact; and identifies factors related to contact and reunification over a two-year follow-up period. Service system barriers to parenting by homeless women with severe mental illnesses are discussed.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to
Keywords: Homelessness, Mental Illness
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.