A MENTAL health program used by Mandurah service providers and families will be discontinued after the Federal Government pulled funding to the initiative.
The Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) national initiative has been running for 15 years with service providers such as Ruah and Wanslea using materials from the program to help local families.
The website provides resources and guidance on supporting the social and emotional wellbeing of children when they are living with a parent who deals with a mental illness.
Ruah manager Carol Cark said there would be no funds and so far as is known, no plans by the Commonwealth to ensure the continuity of the website, video materials, online training and downloadable resources as of June 30.
“I am sure that many services and families have benefited from these materials,” she said.
COPMI initiative at Emerging Minds director Brad Morgan said he was worried the highly accessed website with over 180,000 unique users in the past 12 months would no longer be accessible.
He said the resources were important for regional families.
“A lot of people have expressed concern about what will happen without national leadership in this area,” he said.
Emerging Minds implements the COPMI national initiative and is exploring how they can maintain access for professionals and families to the website and eLearning courses.
In order to develop a plan to sustain the work, Emerging Minds would like to understand what COPMI resources have been used by collecting information through a survey.
To access this survey go to surveymonkey.com/r/5F9PC6L.
The Department of Health was contacted for comment about why the service has been discontinued but failed to respond.
