Edinburgh Napier University

  This study concerns the impact of a diagnosis of mental illness on young people and their families. One in ten adolescents suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder and there is increasing awareness that early diagnosis and intervention are important. Illness can affect personal and social functioning, and being labelled as mentally ill may be stigmatising. This can be educationally and socially critical for both diagnosed adolescents and their siblings. Therefore it is important to understand how young people and their families react to a diagnosis of mental illness, in order to develop care and support for the whole family.