Meet Esther Karkdijk
Esther Karkdijk is a postdoctoral researcher at the academic collaborative center Family Mental Health (GEZIeN) of Arkin, Levvel and Amsterdam UMC. Her research focuses on family-focused mental health care.
What motivates Esther Karkdijk to do this research?
“The mental health of parents and children is closely intertwined. When one family member is struggling, it can have an impact on the whole family.
Although the importance of family-focused mental health care is widely recognized, there are still challenges in putting this approach into practice across both child and adolescent and adult mental health care. As a researcher and psychologist, I am motivated to bridge research and practice and contribute to making family-focused care more accessible.”
What impact does Esther Karkdijk hope her research will have?
“I hope our research will contribute to a better understanding of how mental health care can support not just the individual, but the whole family.
We have recently started a pilot, FOCUS, across five child and adolescent mental health care organizations. The pilot focuses on the mental health of parents whose children are receiving mental health care.
I hope this pilot will help make family-focused care more common in everyday practice and ultimately improve the support available to families.”
Esther Karkdijk for Postdoc Appreciation Week-NL. Photo credits: Martijn Gijsbertsen.