Children's Mental Health Week: 7-13 Feb 2022

The theme of this year's Children’s Mental Health Week is Growing Together.

Human beings change and grow – we do it all the time and in many different ways. Physical growth is easy to see as we grow from babies to children, teenagers to adults. We grow intellectually as we gain new knowledge, skills, and understanding at school, and beyond. is about growing emotionally, and finding ways to help each other grow.

For Children’s Mental Health Week 2022, Place2Be is encouraging children (and adults) to consider how they have grown, what they need to help them grow, and how they can help others to grow too.

Young Somerset, in partnership with Somerset County Council, have adapted some resources to encourage children and young people to explore the theme ‘Growing Together’ throughout Children's Mental Health Week. This is a great way for teachers and parents to incorporate awareness around development and growth. 

These activities have been adapted from from Place2Be’s Primary and secondary resources which can be found here >>

5 Ways to Explore Growing - This resource gives young people some creative ideas for each day fo the week to encourage them to explore how they have grown and how they'd like to grow in the future.

Growing Together Activity Booklet - This resource is designed for children and young people to fill out during the week. You can either print this activity book out or complete electronically. It includes activities and explores lots of different ways that you can grow.

Children and young people are coming through a period of unprecedented disruption which has increased their isolation and removed huge opportunities for socialisation and development.

The organisations want to reach out to all children and young people in Somerset who are uncertain and feeling low – to hear their voice, to recognise their needs, to listen well, and to help and support them towards positive wellbeing and mental health. Growing together builds strength.

Councillor Clare Paul, Somerset County Council’s cabinet member responsible for health and wellbeing, said: “It has been an unprecedented couple of years which has left its mark on many people’s mental health. It has been particularly tough on children and young people.

“I would like to reach out to all young people and say, ‘it’s alright to not be alright’. If you are struggling with anxiety or your mental health - help is and always will be available for you.”

Place2Be, the campaign’s creators, have a number of free resources to help you take part in the week. All of the ideas can be adapted for use in school, for home-schooling, online lessons or independent learning and are available through their website - https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/

Young Somerset have developed some children's and young people's resources based on Place2Be's theme and activities

To celebrate Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week, they are exploring some creative ways to grow emotionally and find ways to help each other grow, take a look and share these resources below: Growing together for primary https://bit.ly/cyp-create Growing together for teens https://bit.ly/cyp-create-t

Nik Harwood, Chief Executive Officer at Young Somerset, commented: “The theme of this year’s campaign, ‘Growing Together’, is important as it recognises that no-one has to suffer alone.

“I’m reminded of Prince Harry saying: ‘It is okay to have depression. It is okay to have anxiety and it is okay to have an adjustment disorder. We need to improve the conversation. We all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health.’ Growing together means sharing – how we are feeling, how we are struggling, how we are thriving and growing together means learning from each other, supporting each other and getting strength from each other.”