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February 2022 Parenta Magazine

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Children’s Mental<br />

Health Awareness<br />

Week<br />

Children’s Mental Health Week is taking<br />

place in the week of the 7th – 13th<br />

<strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> and is a time to not only<br />

raise awareness of mental health issues<br />

amongst children, but to also offer advice<br />

and information and showcase some of<br />

the work that can be done in this area to<br />

help all children develop positive attitudes<br />

towards their mental health, and that of<br />

others too. This year’s theme is “Growing<br />

Together”, and the aim is to encourage<br />

children (and adults) to consider how they<br />

have grown, and how they can help others<br />

to grow.<br />

According to the CMHW website, “Growing<br />

Together” is about growing emotionally<br />

and finding ways to help each other grow.<br />

Challenges and setbacks can help us to<br />

grow and adapt and trying new things<br />

can help us to move beyond our comfort<br />

zone into a new realm of possibility and<br />

potential. However, emotional growth is<br />

often a gradual process that happens over<br />

time, and sometimes we might feel a bit<br />

stuck.”<br />

The pandemic has had a negative effect<br />

on the mental health of many people, and<br />

two years after the virus first arrived on UK<br />

shores, we may have developed strategies,<br />

vaccines and treatments to tackle the virus,<br />

but we are still many years away from<br />

seeing the full impact of lockdowns, school<br />

closures and changes to our everyday<br />

patterns of behaviour. It is more important<br />

than ever that we face up to the challenges<br />

that have been created in our population’s<br />

mental health, and absolutely vital that we<br />

find solutions to deal with the burgeoning<br />

mental health issues in our children.<br />

A 2021 report on the “Mental Health of<br />

Children and Young People in England” has<br />

highlighted some of the main problems<br />

facing young people today reporting<br />

that since 2017, rates of probable mental<br />

disorders have increased in children aged<br />

6 to 16 years from 1 in 9 (11.6%) to 1 in 6<br />

(17.4%). In 17- to 19-year-olds, it increased<br />

from 1 in 10 (10.1%) to 1 in 6 (17.4%).<br />

This means that in most classes of 30<br />

students in mainstream schools, there are<br />

at least 5 students who are facing mental<br />

health challenges.<br />

Nearly 40% of children aged between 6<br />

and 16 reported a deterioration in their<br />

mental health since 2017, and this figure<br />

rose to over half (52.5%) of those aged 17<br />

to 23 years. The report also highlighted<br />

an increase in possible eating problems<br />

and sleeping disorders as well. Clearly,<br />

the romantic, fictional notion of a carefree,<br />

stress-free childhood is not the reality that<br />

many of our children are living.<br />

What is Children’s Mental Health<br />

Awareness Week?<br />

In 2015, the charity, Place2Be, launched the<br />

first ever Children’s Mental Health Week<br />

to “shine a spotlight on the importance<br />

of children and young people’s mental<br />

health.” Place2Be offers a variety of different<br />

mental health and counselling services to<br />

meet schools’ needs, including in-school<br />

support, expert training and resources, and<br />

has over 25 years experience in helping<br />

young people.<br />

<strong>2022</strong> will be the 8th year of the week-long<br />

event and Place2Be are hoping that more<br />

people than ever will join in and spread<br />

the word. They are calling on everyone,<br />

whether they are a parent/carer, childcare<br />

professional, teacher, nursery practitioner,<br />

youth worker, or just someone who is<br />

passionate about children and young<br />

people, to sign up and do their bit. And<br />

they’ve made it easy to do as well. You<br />

can sign up for more information on the<br />

CMHW website, where you can find a lot of<br />

free resources, lesson plans, social media<br />

banners and suggested posts for the week.<br />

The resources are designed to be used by<br />

schools, online lessons, home-schooling or<br />

independent learning and can be adapted<br />

to help children and young people explore<br />

the theme of “Growing Together”.<br />

How to get involved<br />

There are many ways to get involved in this<br />

year’s event including:<br />

• Adding your name and ideas to the UK<br />

CMHW map by filling in a short online<br />

form<br />

• Posting your stories and images on<br />

your social media pages using the<br />

hashtag #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek.<br />

You can also download a free social<br />

media guide which includes template<br />

posts, downloadable images, inspiring<br />

idea<br />

• Run a fund-raising event to raise<br />

money<br />

• Hold a “Dress to Express Day” in your<br />

setting and encourage everyone to<br />

wear whatever they want to express<br />

themselves – you can run it as a mufti<br />

day if you have a uniform or just ask<br />

people to donate £1 to the cause and<br />

dress up!<br />

• Hold a ‘fun’ day to lighten the load and<br />

bring a bit of fun and sunshine back<br />

into everyone’s lives. You could dress in<br />

bright colours or decorate your setting<br />

with things that make you and your<br />

children smile, play games, have a<br />

party or hold a laughter session<br />

• Get out into nature and go for a walk.<br />

This is an inexpensive and simple<br />

way to help children reconnect to their<br />

natural surroundings and exercise is a<br />

well-known tonic to help combat stress<br />

and mental health issues because it<br />

stimulates the release of dopamine<br />

and serotonin in the brain, which can<br />

improve mood<br />

The NHS have published advice on how to<br />

improve mental well-being and suggest<br />

5 easy ways which have been proven to<br />

help, especially with mild to moderate<br />

depression. These are:<br />

1. Connect with other people<br />

2. Be physically active<br />

3. Learn new skills<br />

4. Give to others<br />

5. Pay attention to the present moment<br />

(mindfulness)<br />

You can find simple examples of how to do<br />

these 5 things on the website here, where<br />

you will find some simple suggestions of<br />

things to do and things to avoid.<br />

Remember that children can often find<br />

expressing their emotions difficult and they<br />

may be unable to express how they really<br />

feel, especially younger children.<br />

Often, when children are stressed or<br />

anxious and unable to properly express<br />

themselves verbally, they may present<br />

with challenging behaviours, so always<br />

be patient and remember that behaviour<br />

is the child’s way of communicating that<br />

something is wrong.<br />

Let us know what you are doing to get<br />

involved in the Children’s Mental Health<br />

Awareness Week by sending us your<br />

stories and pictures to hello@parenta.com.<br />

References and more information:<br />

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week<br />

Mental Health of Children and Young<br />

People in England, 2021 Wave 2 follow up<br />

to the 2017 survey<br />

NHS – Exercise and depression<br />

NHS – 5 steps to mental well-being<br />

30 <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> | parenta.com<br />

parenta.com | <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> 31

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