Children and young people's wellbeing

Recognising the collective trauma and heightened anxiety following the dreadful situation in Ukraine, we have gathered the following resources to help support children and young people.

This YouTube video 'Supporting our children in traumatic times', presented by Dr Tina Rae. Also see her blog page for more useful advice.

Useful webinars:

Talking about War and Conflict with Children - a webinar course.

Podcast: Talking to your children about the Ukraine War

In this podcast episode Dr Beth Mosley (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) both mother and mental health professional, talks with Dr Kelsey Odgers (Clinical Psychologist) and Kelly (mother of two) about how we manage our children's exposure and time spent on news stories? And, how do we turn feelings into helpful actions. Listen to 'Talking to children about Ukraine War' Podcast 
Listen to our free Mental Health and You podcast series Or search for ‘Mental Health and You’ on Apple Podcasts.

Ukrainian refugee resources for settings:

Ukraine Refugees Support Plan

Ukraine Talking About War Plan

'Welcome to our school Ukraine translated notices for refugees'

Useful websites and articles:

The British Psychology Society - Supporting children to manage anxiety over war and conflict

The Education Hub - help for teachers and families to talk to pupils about the Russian invasion

Newsround - advice if you're upset by the news

Childline - worries about the world

Refugees, war and conflict | Suffolk County Council 

How to deal with Childhood Trauma - Anna Freud

The UK Trauma Council website has a range of information and resources to help you support refugee and asylum-seeking children who have experienced trauma.

How to deal with Childhood Trauma - Anna Freud Centre

More information can be found on Suffolk County Council | Refugees, war and conflict.

• Psychology and Therapeutic Service (PTS) Supporting Return to Education (Secondary)
• Psychology and Therapeutic Service (PTS) Supporting Return to Education Settings (Nursery & Primary)
• Looking after your mental health and wellbeing and that of the children and young people you support
• Emotional Wellbeing Gateway website
• The Source website for young people in Suffolk
• Express Yourself Toolkit - Anna Freud Centre for children and families, has created this toolkit for children, staff and parents. 
• Kooth - Provides free online emotional wellbeing support to 11-25 year olds in Suffolk.  
• ChatHealth Text Service for 11-19 years olds - Confidential help from a school nurse about any thing, such as advice on health and wellbeing worries, sexual health and bullying.
• PACT Parents and Carers Together - Provide free support to parents and carers of children or young people with a mental health issue.
• What Matters Island worksheet
• Barnardo's Phoneline service - offering general wellbeing information and guidance to families.

Supporting Suffolk Schools with Mental Health: 

How Kooth Can Support Eating Disorders and Self Injury & Harm Workshop

Tuesday 21st March, 4 to 5pm

Sign up

Five Tips for people with Anxiety

• Five Tips for Children with Anxiety (pdf. 388KB)
• Five Tips for Young People with Anxiety (pdf. 510KB)
• Anxiety in Children and Young People
• The Source Anxiety Advice for Young People 

Watch the this YouTube video 'Keep Cool - Anxiety', where Young people share and explore how they keep cool when experiencing anxiety.

Training

• How to manage anxiety on the return to school
• Managing Anxiety Workshop Part 1
• Anxiety Workshop Part 2 

Anxiety Support Services

• Emotional Wellbeing Hub
• Kooth
• The Source - for young people in Suffolk 

Suffolk Mental Health Support Teams have developed a  poster, to support all children and young people, who may be experiencing anxiety related symptoms during the pandemic.

The poster is aimed at supporting children at Key Stage 2, we advise that these resources are supported by staff. 

Download the 'Feeling worried about Covid 19 Poster'.

Resources

• Wellbeing Service Low Mood Advice
• MoodWise
• The Source - for young people

Please find below available self-harm resources

Useful information and advice pages for parents and carers:

Self-harm in children and young people advice page

The Source website Self-harm advice for young people

Self-harm leaflets:

I feel like hurting myself - A Self-harm z card for young people with advice and support information.

Self-harm - A guide for parents and carers leaflet - This leaflet has been designed with parents to provide helpful information and suggestions at a time when parents and carers may feel confused, powerless or uncertain about how to make sense of their child’s self-harming. 

Self-harm resources for professionals and educational settings:

Self-harm Toolkit - This is the online Self-harm toolkit guidance which educational settings can find the full version of this available to download from the Schools Information Portal. (If your setting needs access to the Schools Information Portal, please email jane.stannard@suffolk.gov.uk)

For information and advice around helping children and young people sleep better, go to this Sleep Advice page

Services and organisations that can help with loss and bereavement:

Cruse Bereavement Care booklets - Child Bereavement Care has a number of booklets for helping children understand about loss on their website. They also have a support line for families (0808 808 1677), and offer training webinars to professionals.

Children and Bereavement - This is an advice page is aimed at parents and professionals from the Emotional Wellbeing Gateway website.

Bereavement and Young People - This advice page is also from the Emotional Wellbeing Gateway website, and is aimed at helping parents and professionals to support a young person who is experiencing loss and grief.

When someone dies - This is a bereavement advice page aimed at young people from The Source website.

Traumatic bereavement resources 

The UK Trauma Council, and Anna Freud Centre traumatic bereavement resources 

Anna Freud booklet - Working with young children and families who have been bereaved.

Having an ELSA in your school will mean you are able to offer interventions and planned programmes of support to children experiencing emotional, social and behavioural difficulties.

To find out more information visit Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) Training and Supervision and Elsanetwork.org

ELSA - We have a vaccine - PowerPoint presentation about COVID vaccine for children.

Resources and support to help children and young people cope with exams

• Exam Resilience - Module 1
• Exam Resilience - Module 2 Study Skills & Problem Solving
• Exam Resilience - Module 3  Managing Thoughts and Feelings
• Exam Resilience - Module 4 Putting it all together
• The Source for Young People - Planning for exams

These family leaflets were co-produced with Suffolk Parent Carer Network SPCN

Five Tips for going back to school

• Five Tips for Families, going back to school with Anxiety (pdf. 489KB)
• Five Tips for Families, going back to school with Autism (pdf. 519KB)
• Going back to Primary School (pdf. 516KB)
• Going back to Secondary School (pdf. 569KB)

Also see:

• What to do if your child is anxious about going back to school

Five Tips for people with Autism

• Five Tips for Children with Autism (pdf. 490KB)
• Five Tips for Young People with Autism (pdf. 464KB)

Also see these useful websites:

• Suffolk Local Offer

Five Tips for coping with Self-Harm 

• Five Tips for helping Children that Self-Harm (pdf. 472KB)
• Five Tips for helping Young People that Self-Harm (pdf. 478KB)

Also see:

• Self-harm in Children and Young People 
• The Source for young people self-harm advice

Five Tips for people with Challenging Behaviour

• Behind Challenging Behaviour in Primary School (pdf. 700KB)
• Behind Challenging Behaviour in Secondary School (pdf. 816KB)

Positive Self-Talk Rainbows

• Positive Self-Talk Rainbows for Primary School (pdf. 998KB)
• Positive Self-Talk Rainbows for Secondary School (pdf. 1.5MB)

Five Ways to Wellbeing

• Find out about the Five Ways to Wellbeing