On Saturday I presented at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London at the conference ‘Too much Pain‘ on the issue of parental alienation as a child mental health issue.  The subject is clearly one which resonated with delegates as many had questions to ask afterwards and we discussed the issues facing children and parents in the context of us having watched the film Resilience at the start of the day.

Watching this film made me realise that the experience of parental alienation is not just about children’s mental health, it is about the impact of their mental health on their physical wellbeing. In fact, at worst, it is a public health issue in which children who are alienated from a parent face the likelihood of having a shortened life expectancy of – wait for it – 20 years less than their peers.  Let me unpack that.