Healthy Minds
Healthy Minds
While we recognise the importance of physical fitness and good nutrition seemingly more than ever before, we often lose sight of other very critical aspects of health. Our mental wellbeing is just as important as, if not more important than, our physical wellness!
Mental health problems affect about 1 in 10 children and young people. They include depression, anxiety and conduct disorder, and are often a direct response to what is happening in their lives.
Please visit website for more information on minded.org
Useful Links
- Mind for Families
Safe and reliable advice about young people’s mental health, created by experts and parents together
Mind for families - Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families is a children’s mental health charity with over 60 years’ experience of caring for young minds. Our vision is a world in which children and their families are effectively supported to build on their own strengths to achieve their goals in life.
Anna Freud - M2E have some useful advice and tips:
Support children in understanding their feelings by making conversations about emotions part of daily life, some parents find this easier around stories, films and TV programmes. Talking about feelings like sadness and anger will let a child know that these feelings are normal and encourage them to explore ways of dealing with them.
Play a Game
Here’s a fun game that gets everyone talking:
Take a pack of smarties or skittles or any coloured sweets and assign each colour to each of these:
- ways my family has fun
- good memories we have as a family
- things I worry about
- words to describe my family
- things I would like to improve/change
Share the sweets out so that everyone has a mixture of colours and then take turns to share one of the above, once you’ve done it you can eat the sweet.
For Adults
There is lot of support out there, you don’t need to suffer in silence. Talk to your GP or if you prefer call the Samaritans (116 123) or Mind (0300 123 3393). These people work with mental health every day so they won’t judge you.
https://chwellbeingnetwork.london runs free and subsidised courses in Hackney focusing on wellbeing.
If you’re concerned about your child’s mental health, you can talk to your GP or staff in school. Young Minds also has a helpline for parents on 0808 802 5544 which is open Mon-Fri 9.30-4pm.