The first-ever dedicated online support community for parents living with mental health issues was launched this week, entitled Parents First.

Website founder, Rob Palmer, said: "While much work has been done nationally to lift the stigma of mental illness, the issue of parenting by a mentally ill mum or dad remains to cloud society's understanding.

"Stigma [of mental illness] may keep many parents from seeking the help they need, particularly in cases where they are afraid of losing custody of their children. Being labelled with a psychiatric disorder can profoundly and negatively affect the experiences of parents, as well as the whole family."

Having experienced living as a single father with bipolar disorder, Rob set up the site to help the more than 6 million parents the NSPCC estimates have experienced mental illness at some point in their life.

"My greatest fear as a parent living with mental health problems is, that I will be separated from my son," Rob added.

"As well as being a listening ear and supportive arm, there could well be experiences within the online community, where a member has needed to work through similarly dark times and had a positive outcome."

Parents First can be contacted in any of the following ways:
Tel: 01472 600969
Email: robert@parentsfirst.org.uk
Twitter: @ParentsFirstWebsite: www.parentsfirst.org.uk 

Posted 09/02/2012 by richard.hook@pavpub.com