Supporting parents with mental illness and their children – developments in family focused practice in the United Kingdom and Ireland

This Special Issue provides a positive and encouraging opportunity to learn more about some of the excellent and innovative developments in supporting families where a parent has mental health problems. It also reinforces how complex the issues involved may be including: considering the needs of everyone in families; their community environments and how services are delivered. Although many of the articles are focused on innovation they also highlight the ongoing, urgent need for more accessible, systemic, family focused services to be consistently and routinely available to all who need them. The potential individual, family and societal benefits of more effectively supporting families are considerable. Research has an important role in demonstrating how these benefits can be achieved and in establishing why supporting families in these circumstances should be more of a priority.