HONOLULU -- Mental health specialists met Saturday to find ways to better support families with a mentally ill parent.

They heard from the now adult children of mentally ill parents who described the loneliness and confusion of their childhoods.

As KITV's Denby Fawcett reported, one of those sharing their very personal pain is a well-known Hawaii musician.

To hear ukelele virtuoso and teacher Roy Sakuma play, you might think he had the sweetest childhood in the world.

But that's not so. Sakuma's mother was a paranoid schizophrenic.

"All I can remember is that she didn't make sense because she was constantly talking to herself," Sakuma said. "I eventually just shut my mind off to it. So in other words, I would kind of go off in dreamland so I don't have to listen to all that, because it was affecting me," he said.

Sakuma said he missed having an adult to talk to and explain his dreams and fears.

"I remember trying one time, but she totally didn't understand," he said.

Sakuma shared his story at the conference Saturday at the Capitol.

Children who spoke said they wish they could have been counseled, too, in addition to their parents.

The title of the meeting was "Out of the Shadows."

"The goal is to just raise awareness that this is a population that needs some extra support and care, so that we can have families that are more stable, able to care for their children, not split up," said Martha Rasmus, of the Invisible Children's Project.

Speaker Jackie Gamboa was put into foster care before she even understood her mother's bipolar illness.

"It was just hard because she was always angry," Gamboa said. "She was upset. She was irritated. Just every little thing – it wasn't a good environment. I thought that was normal. I thought that's how Filipino families were supposed to be."

Roy Sakuma said that perhaps fewer children will suffer if more people understand how mental illness affects children.

"We need to give love to those who are mentally ill, but we need to also be sure we give love to the children, because they are affected by it, too," he said.