This week marks children’s mental health week and this year’s theme is ‘building resilience’ and teaching children to ‘bounce forward’ from life’s challenges. Do you ever look back on your school days and think that yes, you learned how to read and write, but also learned algebra and the periodic table – when have they ever came in handy in your adult life? Where were the lessons on being a better communicator, or managing stress, coping with our emotions? Where were the life lessons that we need in our day to day ups and downs?
Now think about the children of today – they have multiple different social media platforms to try and keep up to date with to chat to their friends and a different gadget to upgrade to every other month instead of playing outside like we used to do. Sounds a bit ‘first world problem-ish’ right? With ever advancing technology, children have so many different outlets to utilise, or in fact cope with in daily life. Facebook, twitter and instagram all to catch up with the weekend news, or just an additional place to notice that they aren’t as ‘cool’ as their peers, or to receive a nasty cyber message? Many children face are exposed to higher levels of stress that we may ever have dreamed about as children. Parent divorces may be increasing, educational standards may be higher – kids have a lot to worry about these days. And so it is important that we teach them how to handle these things, not just for becoming an adult, but for managing their very own childhood.
The British Psychological Association has today stated that Children’s mental health needs to become just as much of a priority within schools as is their physical health. We cannot have one without the other. Here at Global Health Promotions we think this is a fantastic push to bettering our children’s lives and we have our very own mental health courses for children available.
Within these courses we help children to understand mental health, their emotions and how to communicate their worries and struggles to an appropriate outlet. With age appropriate content and activities children have the opportunity to create their very own stress management strategies! While we cannot always change children’s circumstances, we can teach them the skills to cope with life difficulties.
If you are a parent, guardian, teacher or PTA member then please get in touch today and find out how your school can benefit from such a course – creating healthier, happier and positive lives for the next generation!