Family Talk is an evidenced based, 7-session, psycho-educational, whole family approach designed to enhance family communication and understanding of parental mental illness, improve family interpersonal relationships, and promote child resilience and utilisation of social supports.

You can read more here: Christiansen H, Anding J, Schrotte B  Rohrle B (2015) Children of Mentally ill parents – a pilot study of group intervention program. Frontiers in Psychology. Vol.6, Issue 1494

Studies demonstrate Family Talk’s effectiveness for a range of psychiatric diagnosis, including anxiety, bi-polar disorder, psychosis, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and personality disorders.  The references below provide more information about this.

There is evidence that Family Talk may also promote the parent’s mental health recovery.  For instance, diagnosis of parental affective disorders reduced from 90 to 66% at 4.5 year follow-up, and from 43 to 31% at for non-affective disorders.  You can read more about this here:

Between 2018 and 2021 mental health services in the Republic of Ireland funded PRIMERA to undertake the first randomised control trial in relation to an evidenced based intervention – known as FAMILY TALK.  A total of 86 families (139 Parents, 221 Children – across 15 sites) took part in the study.  According to Mulligan, et al  ‘over two thirds of the families reported substantial benefits from participating in Family Talk, including reduced stigma, giving children and partners a voice, increased service-user confidence, and improved family communication/relationships’.  You can read more here:

For more information and supports in the area of Family Talk see the link below.