Objectives To examine how parents of children with mental illness prepare for their children's lives in the community after their own death.Methods Twenty-two parents living in the Kanto region, who have children with mental illness, were interviewed from December 2016 to February 2017. Through qualitative inductive analysis, codes were identified from the narrative data that showed the preparation of parents and compared their similarities and differences. Similar codes were collected and subcategories and categories were created with increasing abstraction levels. Each category was considered with respect to the purpose and the reason why each preparation was done.Results Participants were 9 fathers (40.9%) and 13 mothers (59.1%). Their ages were as follows: in their sixties (n=9; 40.9%), seventies (n=10; 45.5%), and eighties (n=3; 13.6%). Ten categories emerged regarding parental preparation for their children's life after their death: 1) Forecasting their own death and recognizing the limitations of support; 2) Trying to share with their children about their own death; 3) With consideration of after their own death, organizing the necessary information for their children and their own belongings; 4) Consulting with their relatives about the lives of their children and inheritance, and considering the use of the social resources; 5) Trying to secure a residence and living expenses for their children; 6) Connecting with social resources, searching for recovery methods for their children, and their own health maintenance; 7) Stabilizing and recovering disease conditions of their children, supporting to take medication and outpatient visits; 8) Assessing the ability of their children to live considering their independent life; 9) Developing their abilities to live and sociality, and making reliable supporters other than parents; 10) Encouraging to have fun in their children's lives and considering their employment. Parents were preparing to hope their child would cope with difficulties in their lives after their own death, and maintain a stable life in the community by him/herself.Conclusions The results suggested that parents should recognize the need of an independent life for their children in the community, to promote concrete preparations toward their children living in the community after their own death.
Keywords: after parent's death; community; independence; life; persons with mental illness; preparation.