Conf.: Motherhood and Mental Illness

Featured Keynote Speakers
Dorothy Roberts, J.D.,
Kirkland and Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law,
Fulbright Scholar at the Centre for Gender and Development Studies,
University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
&
Joanne Nicholson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Associate Director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research, and
Director of the Child and Family Research Core

Panels held focused on the conflicting demands of various public systems and how they create barriers to parenting for mothers with mental illnesses. Representative systems include homeless services, mental health, TANF, and the criminal justice systems (to name a few). Successful programs that have been able to address these issues were also featured.

Researchers, providers, consumers, policy makers, and advocates gathered together to discuss how systems create barriers to parenting for mothers with mental illness. Keynote speakers Dorothy Roberts, J.D.,and Joanne Nicholson, Ph.D. provided information on the work they are doing in the field as well as the latest findings they have observed. Panel discussions addressed how certain systems have difficult dealing with the “motherhood” status of their consumers/clients and other systems have difficulty dealing with the mental illnesses of mothers.

The CSIPMH sponsored Motherhood and Mental Illness Conference was held on April 10-11, 2003 at Columbia University. Researchers, providers, consumers, policy makers, and advocates gathered together to discuss their observations of how conflicting demands of multiple public systems and institutions (homeless services, mental health, TANF, criminal justice, etc.) undermine the parenting abilities of mothers with mental illnesses and disrupt their families’ lives. The conference coordinator, Judith Samuels, Ph.D., Co- Director of the Center’s Seeking Systems Integration Core, brought together multiple stakeholders to discuss how the systems create barriers to parenting for mothers with mental illness and identify potential solutions for effective interventions crossing system boundaries. NIMH, SAMHSA, and the National GAINS Center co-sponsored the conference.

Day one of the conference featured keynote speakers Dorothy Roberts, J.D., and Joanne Nicholson, Ph.D. Professor Roberts is a faculty fellow from the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University and Dr. Nicholson is the associate director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research. Both renowned scholars provided information on the work they are performing in the field as well as the latest findings they have observed. Two panel discussions were also held on the first day of the conference to discuss how certain systems have difficulty dealing with the “motherhood” status of their consumers/clients and how other systems have difficulty dealing with the mental illness of mothers. The Institute for Community Living, a program that successfully works with mothers with a mental illness, was also featured on day one of the conference.

Day two of the conference brought together invited guests from various public sectors and disciplines to further explore issues related to mothers with mental illnesses. Three workshops were held on day two to explore issues related: 1) to the new adoption law AFSA that cross systems and create barriers to keeping families in tact; 2) the role of domestic violence across systems for these vulnerable families; and 3) the barriers to successful innovations and programs to serve the cross-system needs of these mothers.

Reports highlighting the issues mothers with mental illnesses face when dealing with various public systems; the system and program barriers that impose upon the mothers’ lives and impede successful innovations; and action items that could potentially remove these barriers will be developed and distributed by end of summer 2003. Videotapes of the conference will also be available in summer 2003. For more information about the Motherhood and Mental Illness Conference, contact Dr. Samuels at samuels@nki.rfmh.org or research assistant, Andrea Ault, at aault@nki.rfmh.org.

*Sponsored by the Center For The Study of Issues in Public Mental Health.
Additional funding provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, and the National GAINS Center.