OVER HALF OF PARENTS SAY THEIR CHILDREN’S MENTAL WELLBEING HAS BEEN ONE OF THEIR BIGGEST WORRIES DURING COVID. Most families have experienced upheaval in their daily lives during the pandemic. With children and young people now back at school or college, PHE’s new campaign provides NHS-endorsed tips and advice to help children and young people’s mental wellbeing, and equip parents and carers with the knowledge to support them.
Research reveals that the coronavirus outbreak has caused an increase in anxiety in young people (1), and more than a third of children report being more worried, sad and stressed than before lockdown (2).
New PHE survey data found that two thirds of parents surveyed say their children’s behaviour has changed since the start of the pandemic (69%) and, when asked their top three worries around coronavirus, over half (52%) said the mental wellbeing of their children topped the list of their biggest worries.(3)
The advice available on the Better Health - Every Mind Matters website has been developed in partnership with leading children and young people’s mental health charities. It is designed to help parents and carers spot the signs that children may be struggling with their mental health and support them. In addition to the advice for parents and carers the site also provides tools to help young people build resilience and equips them to look after their mental wellbeing.
To engage parents and carers a powerful short film has been created featuring a range of celebrity parents including Davina McCall, Marvin Humes, Sean Fletcher, Katie Piper and Edith Bowman, reading extracts from best-selling author Charlie Mackesy’s well-known book, ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’. The 1 Levita L, Gibson Miller J, Hartman TK, Murphy J, Shevlin M, McBride O, and others.
Report 1: Initial research findings on the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of young people aged 13 to 24 in the UK. Non-representative sample of 2,000 children and young people aged 13 to 24, collected 21 to 29 April 2020
2 Barnardo’s. Generation lockdown: a third of children and young people experience increased mental health difficulties. 2020. [Sample of 4,283 young people aged 8-24, weighted to be representative of all -24 year olds, GB. Collected 15 May-2 June 2020.]
3 Survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Public Health England. Total sample size was 2,559 parents in England who have children aged 5 to 18. Fieldwork was carried out online between 4th to 11th August 2020. The image part with relationship ID rId13 was not found in the file. emotive extracts all touch upon mental health and aim to encourage parents to visit the Better Health - Every Mind Matters website. For more information search Every Mind Matters.