Mental Health Advice for Families
Mental health is becoming more and more prominent in today’s society, with more stressors surrounding family life it can become hard to cope when things get tough.
Even though children might not share the same type of responsibility and stress as adults, they can still experience anxiety and low mood.
We have put together some tips on how to improve your mental health as a family;
- Talk openly about feelings – spend quality time with children and encourage them to talk about their feelings
. This will make them feel safe about expressing themselves in the future which will eventually help them cope better with their feelings. - Be open and honest – when there is a crisis in the family, it’s important to be honest about what happened. Keep things simple but ensure that the child is aware of the situation while taking a child-friendly approach.
- Building a routine – having a structure with regular exercise and activities can help keep the family bond strong and create memories.
It can be difficult to see the signs of poor mental health especially in adopted children that experienced trauma. But here are a couple of things to look for
- Significant changes in behaviour
- Self-harm of neglecting thoughts
- Withdrawing from social situation
- Ongoing difficulty sleeping
- Changes in eating or weight loss
If you want more information about mental health for children and where to find support, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/supporting-others/childrens-mental-health/ or get support from https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-helpline-and-webchat
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