Supporting Your Child with their Mental Health

Mental health refers to a person’s mental state and emotional well-being. It concerns their ability to deal with stress and go about their day-to-day life. Conditions like anxiety and depression can affect mental health and make this harder. The way that it affects people varies and unlike a physical illness, it is harder to detect. If you're the parent of a child who suffers, or suspect is suffering, with their mental health there are ways that you can help. We have teamed up with a senior school in London to share advice on supporting children with their mental health.

Speak to Them 

Mental health can be quite isolating and talking to someone can offer children relief from how they’re feeling. It can help you to work out how to support them and help them to understand their emotions better. 

Monitor Social Media Usage

Social media can help us to find out what’s going on around us and stay connected with our loved ones. A lot of what we see on the platforms is edited, however, and can be harmful for children. It can worsen anxiety through FOMO and elevate existing insecurities. To help your child, educate them on these things and keep an eye on how long they spend on the apps.

Behavioural Changes

As a parent, you’ll have a good understanding of your child and the behaviour that’s normal for them. Keep an eye out for changes in their behaviour and routine as it will help you to see if something’s wrong. That might be in handing in homework, socialising with others and other subtle changes that you realise. To get a clearer idea you can speak to their teacher to see if things are any different at school and whether there’s anything in particular that they’ve noticed.

*Collaborative post