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Introduction:In adolescents and young adults, self-compassion has been positively associated with wellbeing and negatively associated with psychological distress. One population of youth who may draw particular beneit from self-compassion are those who have parents with mental illness. This qualitative study explored the perspectives and experiences of self-compassion among a group of young adult children of parents with mental illness. Methods: A purposive sample of ten Australian emerging adults aged 18-25 years (3 men, 6 women and 1 non-binary person) participated in individual semi-structured telephone interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to examine and interpret participants' experiences and perspectives of self-compassion. Results: Participants described self-compassion as personally relevant and beneicial, although dificult to engage in. Some participants had learnt about, and actively practiced self-compassion, and offered advice for others. Conversely, others described self-compassion as dificult to practice and outlined barriers to self-compassion, from society and family life. Although participants identiied common negative social conceptions of self-compassion, they articulated how selfcompassion could be valuable for those who have parents with mental illness. Conclusions: Results indicate the perceived importance of self-compassion along with barriers and facilitators of self-compassion for young adults who have parents with a mental illness. Implications for clinical practice and suggestions for future research are presented.

Objectives Individuals who have a parent with mental illness are more likely to experience mental illness than their contemporaries. As such, it is valuable to examine potential psychological resources, which might assist these individuals to experience good mental health throughout their lifespan. We aimed to learn how clinicians perceive self‐compassion, and how it can be incorporated into therapy with clients who have parents with mental illness. Design A qualitative interview design was employed to explore clinicians' perspectives and experiences. Methods Eight mental health clinicians experienced in working with clients who have parents with mental illness were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to establish themes representing the clinicians' perspectives and experiences of incorporating self‐compassion into their work. Results This study found that clinicians were generally positive about incorporating self‐compassion into interventions with clients who are children of parents with mental illness. The participants noted barriers to self‐compassion for these clients, namely a poor sense of self and divided loyalty between self and family. Participants recommended taking time and care, building rapport and involving others when cultivating self‐compassion with those who have parents with mental illness. Conclusions This group of clinicians viewed self‐compassion as relevant to clients whose parents have mental illness and believe it can be introduced therapeutically in various ways. Suggestions are made for tailoring self‐compassion training to the needs and experiences of this group.

Government policies recommend, and all stakeholders benefit, when mental health services meaningfully engage with carers and family. However, health service engagement with carers is inadequate, and often non-existent with children whose parents are service users. There are seven fundamental ways that carers and families want to be integrated with and engaged by health services but current survey instruments do not capture these seven engagement practices. This protocol describes the development of two closely aligned Family and Carer Surveys (FACS) to measure engagement of service users in mental health services. The new measures are based on the seven engagement themes and a conceptual distinction between the carer and family, with particular focus on where the service user is a parent. The instruments will be developed in five stages; (1) item generation (2) Cognitive pretesting of survey (3) preliminary item content quantitative assessment (4) psychometric analysis of a large data collection and (5) selection of items for short form instruments. These steps will operationalise the seven fundamental ways that families and carers want to be engaged with mental health services, thereby providing valid and reliable measures for use in research and benchmarking of carer and family engagement.