The theme of this year's Children's Mental Health Week is 'Let's connect', which is all about the importance and value of making meaningful connections.
When we lack meaningful connections in our lives, we don't meet our need
for social contact and community, which can make us feel lonely and isolated and negatively impact our mental well-being.
This year's Children's Mental Health Week recognises this need for healthy and rewarding connections and encourages children and young people to reach out to family, friends and communities to enhance and maintain their mental health. Whether it's seeing family and friends in person or online, creating more connections with your community by joining a club or volunteering, or random acts of kindness, every connection boosts our sense of well-being.
Here at West Sussex Mind we provide support for children and young people (and their parents and carers) and can help them connect in with their local community. We also provide training for parents and professionals to help them support children and young people.
Here's a list of the services we provide:
- Specialist children and young people mental health workers in GP practices: free support for those aged eight to 18 in Worthing and Lancing
- Support for young people aged 16-25
- Parents and carers support: we help parents and carers to increase their understanding and confidence in coping with and addressing their child's or young person's mental health
- Support for families with young children (Families in Mind project): we offer help and support to parents prior to having a child, after their child is born and until their child reaches school age
- Raising mental health awareness in schools: we reach out to schools and colleges in West Sussex and provide innovative ways to get children talking about mental health
- Mental health training for schools: our self-harm learning network and Youth Mental Health First Aider course are available to schools to help them support their students. We offer a range of courses for professionals and volunteers working with children and young people
- Mental health training for parents and carers: we have a range of free and low-cost training to help parents and carers support children with their mental health
