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Table 4 Parental perspective on professional help for offspring

From: Parents’ perceptions on offspring risk and prevention of anxiety and depression: a qualitative study

Parental perspectives

Citations

‘Children’ as a topic in regular mental health treatment

#10 “…I think it’s really important that the Mental Health Care Center pays attention to that, that people who have kids, that attention is paid to them, over how do you handle that.”

Practical support

#13 “I needed most that she (daughter) just had a normal and fun life, that she has enough diversions and does fun things. It’s important that, now and then, someone else takes over.”

Parenting support

#1 “…if I told where I struggled (with regard to parenting) then they usually said that ‘those are parenting problems that everyone comes up against’. I understand that, but I still think that some aspects can be identified where more support can be offered.”

Family psycho-education

#10 “I think it is wise that people who have this [anxiety or depression], that they are taught how to deal with it, when you have a family. And that you get some instructions like ‘how do I tell my kids’ and ‘how do I deal with this so that they better understand what is going on with their mum and what do you tell them and what don’t you? I find that very difficult.”

Help with screening for child symptoms

#15 “Please check on them and tell us if everything is normal. It’s like my compass isn’t working and I can’t sail. And my partner finds it all really difficult. And she is really unsure about how to raise them… if we’re doing okay overall. I don’t feel that way, but she does. So she’s all alone in her uncertainty at the moment.”

Preventive child intervention

#1 “…that she doesn’t suffer the same consequences as I did, since that was a hard way of learning. If she can get a better grasp now, that would be great.”