Wishing Wellness: A Workbook for Children of Parents With Mental Illness
Wishing Wellness is a workbook for the child whose mother or father is suffering from a serious mental illness. Packed with information, interactive questions, and fun activities, it's an ideal tool for children and their therapists or other professional mental health workers, covering:
- How the brain works
- Causes, symptoms, and treatment of mental illness
- Feelings and what to do with them
- Good relationships with parents
- Talking to friends and others
- Roles, rights, and responsibilities in the family
- Coping with prejudice
- Building a circle of support
A "Therapist Resource Guide" is available online at https://www.apa.org/pubs/magination/441A313-guide.pdf
Wishing Wellness was created as a therapeutic tool for children who have a parent with a major mental illness. Children in this situation are at risk for emotional, behavioral, and intellectual difficulties, as well as developmental delays, school achievement problems, deficits in social functioning, and later drug and alcohol abuse. They are at greater risk for mental illness themselves, both as children and adolescents, and later in life. However, the risks are minimized when these children learn the facts about mental illness and when they receive the emotional support and understanding of a mental health professional. -From the "Therapist Resource Guide"