Our vision at Penthos is to provide psychological assessment and treatment to couples and families, who are at risk of disabling mental health outcomes, following the loss of a family member. This may involve the loss of a pregnancy, child, parent or partner.
This is an important aim, given that the loss of another with whom there is a significant emotional attachment can have adverse psychological impacts, not only on the individual experiencing the loss, but also impact on their relationships with others.
Loss can lead to couple and family dysfunction, breakdown and divorce, with developmental impacts on children that can result in a cycle of relationship breakdown inter-generationally.
Many of the resultant psychological, social and financial impacts can be reduced when families at risk are identified and early intervention is offered.
Currently many couples and families are disadvantaged in their access to expert mental health programs of this type.
At this time there are no other organizations, either public or private, that provide the type of specialist intervention proposed by Penthos.