| Author: | Chan, Hoi Yan Vivian |
| Title: | Subjective experience of adult children whose parents have mental illness |
| Advisors: | Ku, Ben (APSS) |
| Degree: | DSW |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Children of the mentally ill Mentally ill. parents Mental illness -- China -- Hong Kong |
| Department: | Department of Applied Social Sciences |
| Pages: | iv, 184 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The narratives inform the subjective experience of the adult children experiencing the onset of parental illness when they were young (between 6 and 13 years old) in the context of Hong Kong with parental mental illness. The results of the research expand both conceptual and research repertoire of children with parental illness in Hong Kong. The key findings are suffering as narrative and from suffering to enduring. They struggled and suffered not only with adjustment to the changes due to parental illness but also culturally related issues in the particular historical and social context. During this particular time, they experienced the meaning threats (cannot make sense of events); skeletons in the closet (keeping the secret) and struggled with non-normative caring tasks at home. These personal life histories are intertwined with the collective stories, which strengthen our understanding of the social construction of mental illness in Hong Kong in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The seconds set of findings is called "creative enduring": Passive yet Active and Creative; Fear and boldness and Being a Realist but embracing hope. Through the impact of both traumatic changes due to parental illness, the dialectical approach is a better concept for us to understand how they experience great difficulties yet adjust their creativity and enduring love and compassion for their ill parent. As such, I make the following recommendations for the social work profession a) giving information and empowering children with family-oriented case management b) do anti-stigmatization by building a language to talk about mental illness with children and teenagers c) training should be given to the helping professional in the policy level for early detection and intervention. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 991022346056703411.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 916.73 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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