By Melissa Grant
Books can help parents explain difficult topics to their children.
Among them is mental illness, however it can be hard to find quality, age-appropriate books on the subject.
It’s somewhat surprising given an estimated one in five adults – many of them parents – will experience depression during their lifetime.
That’s why author and Berwick mum Michelle Vasiliu has started writing books to help children understand mental illness, including depression.
Michelle, who has experienced mental illness herself, recently released Together Things, a book about the changing relationship between a young girl and her depressed father.
Together Things explores the need for children to do different “together things” with a parent experiencing mental illness. Things such as drawing pictures or reading a story together.
Michelle says Together Things can help parents who may be experiencing depression for the first time in their lives.
“When I wrote it, it was before all the coronavirus pandemic business,” she said.
“Now with so many people being impacted by the pandemic, we are seeing more and more adults experiencing depression and/or anxiety than ever before.”
Together Things is the second children’s book Michelle has written about mental illness.
Her first, My Happy Sad Mummy, explains the impact a major mental illness such as bipolar disorder has on a parent.
Michelle drew on her own experience with bipolar to write the book, which cleverly portrays the emotional rollercoaster of the illness as a child may perceive it.
The inspiration for the book came after a hospital stay in 2007, when her children were aged three and six.
“I dabbled in adult writing for a long time. But after being in hospital back in 2007 I was searching the world literally, for some kind of children’s books (on mental illness) … and I couldn’t find anything,” she explained.
“And what I could find, it just wasn’t right – it was outdated, or it was from overseas, so I wrote my own.”
My Happy Sad Mummy, aimed at preschool and early primary school aged children, won a Australian Association of Family Therapy book award.
Michelle is passionate about reducing the stigma around mental illness and promoting children’s books as a means to open up the conversation with young kids.
She works with families who have parents experiencing mental illness.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, she was giving presentations to trainee social workers about the importance of talking to children about mental illness.
Michelle hopes to publish more children’s books to keep the conversation going.
“My focus long-term is to get a whole library of books focusing on mental illness and to get children talking about mental illness, anything that’s difficult,” she said.
To discover more about Michelle’s books, visit http://www.michellevasiliu.com/
