This week is Children’s Mental Health Week 2021, first launched by mental health charity Place2Be to highlight the importance of young people’s mental health. The theme this year is ‘Express Yourself’ aiming to encourage children to explore the different ways they can express themselves. We’ve put together a few ways we can help look after their mental health, especially through these difficult times.
Nourishment & Care
Being kind, supportive and listening to children shows that you care and that you are being supportive of how they feel.
Mindset
Mental health is something that affects all of us, no matter our age, so it is important to try and teach children about mental health and that it isn’t a bad thing to talk about.
Coping Skills
We need to support children to learn different and practical coping skills that can help them deal with their feelings, stress and challenges they may face.
Encouraging Talking
The more that we encourage children to talk about how they are feeling and how to express themselves, the better they will become at tuning into how they are thinking and feeling.
Physical Health
Healthy eating, exercise and sleeping well all contribute to positive mental health, so it is important that we support their physical wellbeing throughout the day too.
Role Model
If we focus on becoming solid and positive role models, children pick up on our positive behaviours and will more likely adopt them themselves.
Seek Help
Do not feel ashamed to seek help. Support is out there and it is important to teach our children to reach out when they’re struggling so that they can know where to find support as they grow up too.
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