[Children of psychiatric patients--what to do?].

Examination of the records of first admission patients at the acute ward of a psychiatric hospital indicated that contact was established with only 4% of the patients' children. A screening for assistance to patients' children at the acute wards of 21 hospitals showed, furthermore, that only one hospital offered such assistance as a routine. It is argued that this shows a relative neglect of a group (patients' children) with well documented mental health problems, whose only contact with the health services may be their parent's hospital, and whose problems may relate directly to the parent's problems.