Families: Understanding and supporting children’s mental health
At Emerging Minds, we’ve been talking with families about what supports them to navigate the ups and downs of daily life as well as what has helped them move through difficult times. A common theme during these conversations was mental health knowledge, understanding what can influence it both positively and negatively, and why it’s important for parents to actively support children’s mental health from birth. Parents wanted to know what they can do in their daily interactions with children to really make a difference in their lives.
In response to these conversations, we’ve released a new series of resources for you to share with the families in your care. Designed for parents, these resources aim to strengthen families’ knowledge and confidence in talking about children’s mental health with practitioners and educators by offering a shared language and understanding of key child mental health concepts. The collection of resources, which includes fact sheets, videos, animations and podcasts, offers accessible and practical information about what children’s mental health is, what shapes it, how to support it and what to look out for if a child might need some extra support.
To assist with launching this series, Emerging Minds Director, Brad Morgan, and Emerging Minds Manager, Digital Health, Ben Rogers, discussed what everyone needs to know about child mental health with host Alicia Ranford in this episode of the Emerging Minds Families podcast.
In this episode, you will learn:
- about children’s mental health and what positive mental health looks like in children [0:57]
- how parents and caregivers can help children understand their emotions and learn to express them in healthy ways [04:27]
- about the new suite of child mental health resources and the process Emerging Minds used in creating them. [07:57]
Further information and resources:
Understanding and supporting children’s mental health – animation
Understanding children’s mental health
What shapes children’s mental health
Understanding children’s emotions and behaviour