Childrens Mental Health Week
Place2Be launched the first ever Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health.
Now in its seventh year, they hope to encourage more people than ever to get involved and spread the word.
Children’s Mental Health Week 2021 - Express Yourself
From 1-7 February 2021 schools, youth groups, organisations and individuals across the UK will take part in Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself.
Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.
It’s important to remember that being able to express yourself is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself.
For Children's Mental Health Week 2021 Place2Be will be encouraging children (and adults) to explore the different ways we can express ourselves, and the creative ways that we can share our feelings, our thoughts and our ideas.
A Message from Cumbria Safeguarding CHILDREN Partnership
In Cumbria, we are asking children, young people and others to share with us the ways they express feelings, and thoughts about what has helped them cope or what they have learned in this time from the COVID pandemic or maybe what they wished they had known at the start.
There are a number of ways to get involved:
Draw a picture
Write a poem
Produce a short piece of writing (200 – 400 words)
Make music, write a song (audio only)
Send Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership a photo of an object that helped you cope with ups and downs (something you made; your goldfish; houseplant; favourite book/game)
Please send your contributions in digital format to Lucy.Pye@cumbria.gov.uk by the end of Thursday 4th February. All entries received will be entered into a prize draw
What else is happening?
My Time will also be hosting free Zoom information sessions for parents and carers. The “Supporting your child's mental health through the pandemic” sessions will provide informal practical advice and ideas that can help you to support the mental health of you and your child through the pandemic. Information on dates and how to book is here
Kooth will be hosting a parent and carer session on Tuesday 2 February 2021, 12-1pm. Further information is available here
E-School Nurses are running twice weekly online health support and advice for parents, carers and professionals, supporting children and young people aged 5-19 years old. More information is available here
Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership will also be publishing a 5-minute briefing each day covering themes such as:
How to get support
Top tips
Family mental health
Music and wellbeing
Words and feelings
Helping yourself and helping others
You can help support Children’s Mental Health week by promoting the activities taking place over the week. You can also share our briefings and retweet us on Twitter, @CumbriaSCP using the hashtag #childrensmentalhealthweek.
If your organisation is is running an event to mark the week, let CSCP know and so they can share these in their briefings over the course of the week, please email CSCP@cumbria.gov.uk