THE SERIOUSLY MENTALLY-ILL WOMAN IN THE ROLE OF PARENT - CHARACTERISTICS, PARENTING SENSITIVITY, AND NEEDS

While considerable numbers of seriously mentally ill women give birth, many are at risk of losing custody of their children. We lack specifi c information, however, about who these women are, how they function i n the parenting role, and their parenting needs and, thus, how to prov ide the appropriate support to strenghen their parenting skills. Forty -eight seriously mentally ill women ranging in age from 17 to 50 years , each of whom had at least one child under age 13, were interviewed w hile hospitalized in state psychiatric facilities. Results show that t he majority of women experienced risk factors which would be expected to compromise their parenting ability, i.e., they were of low SES, poo rly educated, not married, with few social supports and multiple hospi talizations, and had given birth at an early age. Current hospital tre atment did not appear responsive to parenting needs. The parenting sen sitivity of the majority of women, however, suggested adaptive ideas a bout parenting, that could be supported and strengthened. The findings are used to suggest appropriate interventions that consider the paren ting role of seriously mentally ill women, enhance their parenting sil ls, possibly reduce the number who lose custody of their children, and build on motherhood as a chosen and normative role with rehabilitatio n potential.