CEO Thought Leadership Drafts: It Takes a Village
It takes a village: supporting children and young people through family mental health challenges
By Nadine Bartholomeusz-Raymond | 6 July 2026
Children and young people growing up with family mental health challenges are often hidden in plain sight.
They may carry worry, responsibility and uncertainty quietly, while also showing enormous insight, creativity, empathy and strength. Too often, they are only recognised once they are already struggling, rather than seen earlier for the role they may be playing within their family.
A recent article published in Frontiers for Young Minds, co-authored by Dr Melinda Goodyear, someone I have had the privilege of working alongside, immediately resonated with me.
The article, It Takes a Village: Supporting Children Whose Parents Have a Mental Illness explores The Village research project in Tyrol, Austria, which was designed to support children living with a parent experiencing mental illness.
Its message is simple, but powerful: when a parent experiences mental illness, children and young people need more than services alone. They need trusted adults, open conversations and practical support around them. They need a village.
This strongly aligns with what we see every day at Satellite.
When a parent or family member experiences mental health challenges, children and young people are often affected in ways that are not immediately visible. They may take on extra responsibilities at home, worry about a parent, sibling or family member, feel confused or alone, or find it difficult to concentrate at school and maintain friendships.
But the most important message is not one of deficit.
Children and young people navigating family mental health challenges are not simply “at risk”. They are thoughtful, capable and deeply connected to the people they love. Many develop empathy, responsibility, creativity and emotional awareness from a young age.
What they need is not stigma, low expectations or silence. They need recognition, connection and support that helps them understand their experiences without being defined by them.
A village is not just a service system. It is a network of trusted adults, family members, friends, schools, community organisations and peers who help children and young people feel safe, understood and less alone.
It is the people who notice. The people who listen. The people who help share the load. The people who make it easier for a young person to say, “this is what is happening for me.”
Too often, children and young people affected by family mental health challenges remain just outside the frame. Adult mental health systems focus, understandably, on the person experiencing mental illness. Schools may see a young person struggling but not understand what they are carrying at home. Carer systems may not reach children and young people who do not identify as carers.
As a result, many young people are not recognised until they are already struggling or in crisis.
At Satellite, we believe support needs to begin earlier.
Through creative, peer-led and community-based programs, we create spaces where children and young people aged 8-25 who are navigating family mental health challenges can connect, share, create and grow.
These spaces are intentionally non-stigmatising. They are about belonging, creativity, lived experience connection and the quiet power of realising, often for the first time, “I am not the only one.”
These moments matter. They build confidence, reduce isolation and help young people develop language for their experiences. They remind them that their family situation does not limit their future.
Making young people visible means recognising their role earlier, asking better questions and valuing creative, community-based and lived-experience-led support alongside clinical services.
Children and young people do not need to be treated as problems to be solved. They need to be surrounded by people who recognise their strengths, listen to their experiences and help them stay connected to themselves, their families, their communities and their futures.
It really does take a village.
The challenge now is to keep building one.
