Let’s connect this Children’s Mental Health Week
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme is all about encouraging children, and the adults in their lives, to make meaningful connections.
6th February 2023
By Jo Aitken, Children and Young People’s Development Manager, SAMH
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week (Monday 6th – Sunday 12th of February 2023), and the theme is all about encouraging children, and the adults in their lives, to make meaningful connections.
Connections have always been core to what we do at SAMH, and much of what we do in the children and young people’s team is about creating time and space for young people to feel listened to and connected. In fact, some of our services, like the Community Link Work Services in Edinburgh and Glasgow, are all about connections.
In Glasgow, the service works with people who are currently receiving support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and/or their parents, carers and siblings. We aim to help them access community supports and services to improve and maintain their mental health and wellbeing, in order to live well. And in Edinburgh, we work with young people who have either not been taken on by CAMHS for specialist support, and/or are struggling to find the correct mental health and wellbeing support. We provide a listen and link service to help them find services and support in the community, including the option for them to participate in SAMH’s Time for Me programme.
Keir* used the community link worker service in Edinburgh after struggling with anxiety and low-mood as a result of being bullied. He felt isolated and was lacking confidence, which led to poor attendance at school, and panic attacks. As well as listening to Keir and teaching him some coping techniques, the service helped him connect back to his local community and build up social connections, including taking on a new volunteering role with Youth Football Scotland.
Keir said, “Since I completed the programme, I feel more myself. I realised that I shouldn’t be ashamed of what makes me, me. I can’t change who I am. Since the service I’ve not had any panic attacks and I feel more confident in class, out and about, or even by myself.
“This service is important for people like me because it’s an opportunity to talk about something you wouldn’t normally talk about. Maybe it’s a boy thing but I never spoke about my feelings with mates. There is a stigma around it. But the service gave me that space to be listened to.”
Making and maintaining connections isn’t something we should only think about when our mental wellbeing is low, and we encourage all young people to take the time to connect regularly. Our new five ways to better wellbeing resource for young people includes some great ideas on how to connect:
- Put aside five minutes to ask someone how they are doing
- Phone, meet up, or FaceTime friends
- Spend time with family
- Join a local youth club or group.
The resource also suggests way to be active, take notice, learn, and give. Why not challenge yourself to do each of things during Children’s Mental Health Week?
