Children’s Mental Health Week – A Young Person's Point of View

Senior Practitioner, Sinead met with one of our young people, D to talk about Children’s Mental Health Week. D, aged 14, wanted to help put together some advice for foster carers about how they can support a child with their mental health and also talk about the things he does to help himself when he feels stressed or worried.

Things that adults can do to help their young person:

• Play together and go outside
• Have a movie night together
• Cook their favourite meal and eat together
• Ask them how their day in school was and make time to talk if school was tricky. D added that his carers know by his facial expression if he had a bad day and will make time in the evening to chat about it with him which he likes (even though sometimes he doesn’t say much).
• Have animals, for example a dog so they can have lots of cuddles with the dog
• Enjoy a special treat together like an ice-cream

Things D likes to do:

• Have a sleep in at the weekend
• Go to the seaside so I can jump in the water and play on the beach
• Squeeze and hug my favourite teddy
• Draw a picture and do some colouring
• Talk to someone who will listen such as a carer or mentor. D enjoys talking to his MATTS clinician as she is separate to his family and foster carer.
• Have a cool temperature in the house as this keeps D calm

D and Sinead went for a lovely hot chocolate after their chat and they also focussed on other very important discussions including Pokemon Go, Dinosaurs and debating the best ice cream flavour.