Each year at least 1 in 5 Aus­tralians over the age of 16 expe­ri­ence men­tal ill­ness. The most com­mon men­tal ill­ness­es are depres­sion and anx­i­ety and oth­er forms include bipo­lar dis­or­der and schizophrenia.

It is com­mon for peo­ple to expe­ri­ence men­tal ill­ness dur­ing dif­fi­cult times in their lives such as sep­a­ra­tion and divorce.

In par­ent­ing mat­ters before the Fam­i­ly Court the pri­ma­ry con­sid­er­a­tion is the best inter­ests of the chil­dren and pro­tect­ing them from harm, includ­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al harm. Any dis­tress or anx­i­ety expe­ri­enced by chil­dren as a result of a par­en­t’s health issues are rel­e­vant con­sid­er­a­tions for the Court.

In cir­cum­stances where the men­tal health of a par­ent is being man­aged and their con­di­tion does not impact adverse­ly on the chil­dren then there is no rea­son why the chil­dren should not spend time or live with that parent.

If the chil­dren are like­ly to be affect­ed by a par­en­t’s men­tal health issues then the time between that par­ent and the chil­dren is like­ly to be reduced or stopped. Usu­al­ly grad­u­al­ly increas­ing time with the chil­dren as the par­en­t’s health improves and the chil­dren become more set­tled, may be in the best inter­ests of the chil­dren. Where the par­en­t’s men­tal health is such that there is a risk to the chil­dren, then pro­tect­ing the chil­dren from any risk will be the Court’s pri­or­i­ty and that they may mean that con­tact with the chil­dren needs to be super­vised or stopped.

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Match­ing Par­ent­ing Orders to Risk: Craft­ing orders to prop­er­ly address the dan­gers in a fam­i­ly law matter

The focus of any par­ent­ing mat­ter being dealt with in the Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and Fam­i­ly Court of Aus­tralia is what…

Amend­ments to NCC 2022 com­menc­ing on 1 May 2025

Back­groundThe Aus­tralian Build­ing Codes Board (ABCB), a joint ini­tia­tive of the Com­mon­wealth and state and ter­ri­to­ry gov­ern­ments togeth­er with the build­ing…

Choose Your Own Respon­dent in Gen­er­al Pro­tec­tions Dis­missal Disputes

Usu­al­ly when one par­ty is tak­ing legal pro­ceed­ings against anoth­er the respon­dent enti­ty needs to be care­ful­ly iden­ti­fied. It can…

In the News

Press Release | New Part­ner Appoint­ment — Mark Glynn

With over two decades in the indus­try, Mark is a recog­nised front-end con­struc­tion lawyer spe­cial­ist with­in the build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try. Mark…

Press Release | New Asso­ciate Appoint­ment — Hugo Mahony

“As we con­tin­ue to expand in line with our strate­gic vision, Hugo’s deep knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence in Com­mer­cial, Cor­po­rate, IP…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Police and Safe­Work are inves­ti­gat­ing MAFS, but the show keeps win­ning the rat­ings race”, pub­lished on ABC News on 6 April 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Police and Safe­Work are inves­ti­gat­ing MAFS, but the show keeps win­ning the rat­ings…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information