October hailed the annually celebrated World Mental Health Day. This is a day to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental health. All across schools, social media, and the news, messages around Mental Health were communicated. Young Minds took the theme of ‘Hope’ for young people, encouraging them that they were not alone and asking, “what gives you hope?”
In a year, that took an unexpected but unmissable throw of a curveball, it is essential that mental health and wellbeing takes a priority. At BCIC much of our work is created from this priority and the ambition to give every young person and adult we work with, hope for the future.
As we head into the end of the year, we are seeking out pathways and creating new paths to support mental health & wellbeing in young people. We have already been asked to support some young people 1:1, have set up a Positive Messenger (sending out positive messages once a week), and are offering online and offline workshops to schools – and to families.
Sign up for our Positive Messenger here
If you know anyone who would benefit from our free wellbeing support, please do get in touch with louise@brogdalecic.co.uk
In September mainstream news reported that a third of young people say they are sadder than before lockdown. Public Health suggested the pandemic has caused young people to become more anxious. More than half of the parents surveyed worried about their child’s wellbeing.
Talking to young people in our youth groups, many of them agreed with this, although there were also those who felt it was a much calmer time for them. Coming out of an environment that was making them feel sad and anxious and into the safety of family & home, had a positive effect on them.
As we move into this new season where we hope wellbeing will be higher on the agenda. Findings in both the DFE State of the Nation report and Children & Young People’s Mental Health Coalition Annual Report suggest:
Peer Support makes a difference (which we support through our Peer Mentoring )
Transition points in a young person’s life are very important (the reason we designed a Year 6 Transition project)
Sleep is need (taught in many of our emotional health workshops)
Family and community support programs (All BCIC projects are always looking for ways to support the whole family.
Digital support to use social media and tech wisely (taught through our emotional health workshops)
We are encouraged that the projects we have in place are in alignment with findings and we continue to create innovative ways to support young people and adults during this time.
To keep up with regular monthly news from BCIC and how we continue to promote wellbeing: click the link here
