The theme for Children’s Mental Health Week (February 5 to 11, 2024) this year, the 10 of the campaignth year, it’s ‘My Voice Matters’.
Childhood does not usually involve much autonomy. Adults make most of the decisions about a child’s life from where they live, what they eat and when, where they go to school, what clothes they have and much more. From a child’s perspective, he may not feel heard.
Autonomy can positively benefit mental health and Lack of independence can, in adults, increase symptoms of depression.. Once someone has mental health problems, there are Many Ways Mental Illness Can Affect Autonomy. For adults with mental illness, recovery can be improved for positive risk taking and there are some arguments in favor psychotherapy to lean more toward developing authenticity, competence, and autonomy or self-confidence.
Adults are expected to make decisions in the best interest of the child. But for various reasons, adults who care for children may make decisions that are not in the best interest of the child in question. These can add to risk factor’s a child developing a mental illness.
CPTSD: Speech turns off
Children may not be able to use their voices to defend themselves as adults can. By prioritizing the needs of adults over those of children, we could teach them not to get in touch with their needs. In a home with poor relationships between children and adults, this could even lead to emotional neglect or even allow for abusive dynamics. Children can experience continuous stressful situations and this can lead to them developing mental illnesses such as Complex post-traumatic stress disorder or cPTSD.
Emotional, physical, or psychological abuse has enormously detrimental effects on mental health, particularly in the formative years of childhood, as it can lead to the development of cPTSD. Unlike PTSD, which is a mental illness that develops in adulthood when an adult is aware of the traumatic experience they are going through, cPTSD is a mental illness stemming from ongoing trauma in childhood. This could include experiencing widespread and ongoing abuse or trauma as the brain forms, meaning that the symptoms of PTSD are essentially “hardwired” into a young person’s development.
These people are commonly diagnosed or misdiagnosed with many other mental illnesses later in life before receiving a cPTSD diagnosis.
TO cPTSD symptom They are emotional flashbacks. When this happens, the area of the brain that controls speech shuts down similar to when someone has a stroke. This means that the individual cannot articulate themselves properly and is therefore not aware of what exactly is happening and cannot communicate clearly with those around them.
Express yourself differently
Sometimes adults may expect children to express themselves verbally, as adults tend to communicate. Children have different ways of expressing their voice, not always verbally. Going beyond language to listen to children’s voices can have very positive effects on mental health.
Using creativity, such as drawing or painting, to express feelings can be beneficial, depending on the child It could be a good way to help them express themselves without words.
For older children and adolescents, film therapy can be helpful in talking about difficult experiences or feelings through the diluted lens of fictional characters and stories. Although Instructional videos on how to get help for mental health tend to have better results. Beyond narrative films alone, film therapy remains a popular tool for many groups seeking to help teens with their mental health.
dramatic therapy seems to have a very positive effect for many young people, with improvements in general psychosocial problems, internalizing and externalizing problems, social functioning, coping and regulation processes, social identity and cognitive development.
Music therapy has also been shown to have many benefits in helping people express themselves beyond language and can also be a useful tool in helping children and young people express themselves through a different communication tool. If you want to get your child involved in music or even yourself to benefit your mental health, learn more about Key changes. This award-winning, evidence-based British charity works with communities to support mental health and wellbeing through music.
Playtime is also a vital tool to help children express themselves and promote better mental health. In fact, Children who spend more time playing adventurously have fewer internalized problems.. Furthermore, this positive association between adventure play and better mental health was stronger in children from low-income families than in those from higher-income families. So maybe consider playing with your child if you want them to express themselves more freely.
friends listen
It may be useful to remember, friends. affect the well-being of children. In childhood and adolescence, friendships are vital for development and can provide mental health support, awareness and encouragement. Isolation is known to be detrimental to mental health.
Therefore, it seems that creativity and friendship could be related to a positive mental health outcome. Drama, art and music groups help children express themselves differently and also connect them with support networks.
Young people also encourage each other to pay attention to self-care, which can be positive for mental health. Young people associate self-love with resilience and prevention of depression or anxiety but the norms accepted by those around us in the child’s environment such as families or culture, affect your ability to develop strong self-care practices. If our families do not encourage self-care or practice it themselves, children do not learn it. It’s part of human nature to learn from each other.
Teaching the language of mental health
Mental health and the language related to it can be ambiguous and difficult for young people and children to use. Clinical terminology is not easy for adults to use correctly, let alone younger age groups.
It is necessary to understand the language of mental health so that children and young people as well as parents, schools and services can support young people’s mental wellbeing. Develop mental health knowledge of school staff. It’s a way to help children’s voices matter. School has a vital role to play in a child’s mental health, as that environment and a safe and supportive home are the two main factorss in the development of a child.
Children’s voices matter, and the way they talk to themselves about their mental health and wellbeing is just as important as listening to them. Self-stigma, negative stereotypes, and blame are common among children (and adults) who struggle with mental health. To combat this, it is necessary to teach children and adults why mental illnesses develop, research suggests.
Teachers, schools and parents can make a real difference in a child’s life if they are informed. To help children better cope with difficulties they may face that could be detrimental to their mental health, Life skills training could be provided in schools to develop healthy coping strategies..
equal voices
Another reason why children’s voices are important, particularly for MQ, is that research on children and young people’s perspectives regarding their own lived experiences is scarce. The most pronounced life challenges for young adults, according to studiesThey include academic failures, negative feelings about themselves compared to their peers, relationship problems, and stress or mental health problems.
He mental health of children and young people It is an area of great concern globally, but inequalities in research are a major concern in the scientific community.
In 2021, 51 UK research articles published since 2004 were reviewed. focusing on the needs of people between 6 and 17 years old. The top three contributors to mental distress were socioeconomic disadvantage, family instability, and parental distress. The three most common research topics were emotional, behavioral, and hyperactivity difficulties. The four least represented groups were migrant, BAME, physically disabled and LGBTQ children, all of whom were “grossly underrepresented”. Furthermore, it was found that research in this period relied on clinic samples, so information on the needs of children who were unable to access services was completely missing.
In MQ’s 2017 Funding Outlook report, we found that 26% of money spent on mental health research goes to projects with children and young people, despite 75% of mental illness starting before the age of 18 .
We also found that almost 3.5 million children and young people in the UK are affected by mental illness each year. Fortunately, momentum is building in this area and several important research initiatives have been initiated. At MQ, we launched our Brighter Futures program to address this funding inequality and prioritize research into children and young people’s mental health.
All children’s voices matter. That’s why MQ focuses on tackling inequalities in the research we support, as well as funding many studies into children and young people’s mental health.
