Children’s Mental Health Week 2022 Blog

Pears Maudsley Centre
5 min readFeb 7, 2022

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Last week we celebrated Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week (7th — 13th February 2022) by sharing tips and tricks for how you can support the children and young people in your life.

Being a parent is hard at the best of times and you are not expected to know all the answers.

That is why across the week we brought you advice from our leading clinicians at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and world renowned experts from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience to help you help them and look after yourself.

We’ve summarised the week by updating this blog with videos, blogs and articles on different themes.

Monday 7 February 2022

In the first of five new videos, Professor Stephen Scott shares his tips for how to make the most of play with primary school aged children to build your relationship.

Not sure what information to trust about #mentalhealth? Download the new parents toolkit we were proud to work on with City Mental Health Alliance, Maudsley Charity, Place2Be, Young Minds, PWC and Morgan Stanley. http://ow.ly/e62E50HN7YR

Download the Maudsley Charity brand new fundraising pack so you can support their work — in whatever way works for you. http://bit.ly/FundraisingPackMaudsleyCharity

Tuesday 8th February 2022

Professor Stephen Scott, in the second of five videos, shares the positive impact descriptive praise can have on a child’s behaviour.

To all the amazing parents out there, be kind to yourselves. Raising happy health kids is hard and it is impossible to keep them entertained 24 hours a day. This video, narrated by Sandi Toksvi, offers some tips about how you can boost their emotions.

Do you know a young person aged 12–17, who have experience of #mentalhealth? NIHR Biomedical Research Centre are starting an Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group to meet with researchers and improve the quality of research studies. Join here https://bit.ly/32xkuuh

Wednesday 9th February 2022

Creating a reward chart with your child can encourage good behaviour, build excitement and introduce positive habits. Learn more in Professor Stephen Scott’s third tip for parents.

To reduce worries, you can encourage your children to talk about their thoughts to you, to write them down, and then to put the list away. This video, narrated by David Harewood, offers some tips about how you can support a child with anxiety.

IoPPN research has found that adolescent loneliness is associated with adverse outcomes — but what can we do to support lonely young people?

Read our the IoPPN blog, by Professor Louise Arseneault and Dr Timothy Matthews PhD to find out more — https://www.kcl.ac.uk/loneliness-in-adolescence-how-can-we-support-young-people

Thursday 10th February 2022

Consistency is key! Professor Stephen Scott further explains why enforcing consequences can encourage good behaviour.

Are you supporting your child with their mental health? Or need support yourself? Here are four ways you can support a child or young person with an eating disorder.

Friday 11th February 2022

Sometimes we can all benefit from a timeout. These can be enormously effective and improve behaviours of children. Learn more in Professor Stephen Scott’s final tip for parents.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder impacts around one or two people in every 100 people but how do you know if your child has it? Dr Amita Jassi, who works for the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, has shared three supportive points which may help recognise the symptoms of #BDD
Read the full blog post: https://pearsmaudsleycentre.medium.com/body-dysmorphic-disorder-how-do-i-know-if-i-have-it-bc3626207de

Saturday 12th February 2022

A conversation with Maarten Crommelin, Head of School at Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School who shares what it’s like going to school when you are in hospital https://pearsmaudsleycentre.medium.com/going-to-school-when-youre-in-hospital-564e048e0b87

How do they know just how to push your buttons? Parent’s aren’t superheroes and it is hard to keep calm when your kids are acting up. In our video Comedian Romesh Ranganathan offers some tips for keeping calm when things get heated.

Sunday 13th February 2022

As the sun sets on our first #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek, we’d like to say a huge thank you to you all for supporting us and the work of our amazing partners.

We’re a step closer to being able to #ChangeTheStory of mental health problems amongst children & young people. ❤

Who we are

Together Maudsley Charity, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience have formed a partnership to develop new ways of addressing the mental health and wellbeing.

Our home will be the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People. A brand new, £65m building, in Denmark Hill, south London which opens next year.

By working alongside each other, we will ensure new treatments reach patients faster and change how the world thinks about childhood mental health problems. There will be a strong focus on prevention and early intervention so that children and young people have a better chance of leading healthy, fulfilling lives.

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