Support Group: Parents of Children Struggling with Mental Health

Do you have a child aged 8-17 who is struggling with their mental health?

Anxiety, depression, self-harm and other mental health struggles are on the rise in children, particularly following the Covid-19 Pandemic. As parents, we can be left feeling overwhelmed and helpless, not knowing where to turn for help.

Our face-to-face support group helps you to:

• Meet other parents who understand your situation for mutual support.
• Learn strategies to help you support your child, with no judgement!
• Prioritise your own well-being as a parent.

When?
We meet fortnightly

Where?
Lovelace Room | The Mansion | 36 Fore Street |Totnes | TQ9 5RP

Next Steps:
Email us at ParentSupport@YouthMentalHealthFoundation.org to attend one of our Information Session for parents and carers.

• 20% of young people experience a mental health crisis in any given year.
• 50% of mental health problems are established by the age of 14.
• Young people in Devon often wait 18+ months for a CAMHs assessment for mental health problems.

More About Our Face-to-Face Support Groups:

Since September 2022, we have run a support group for parents of secondary school-age young people struggling with mental health, through fortnightly, in-person group sessions. These parents joined the programme at a point when their young person was facing severe mental health difficulties, with families feeling alone, unsupported, and experiencing lengthy waits for input from mental health services.

This first in-person group has been extremely successful for individuals, their young people and wider families, by providing parents with support, skills, strategies and confidence to play a central role supporting their child’s recovery.

“It has been a lifeline for me at the right time” (Parent, 2022)

From lived experience, we have seen the importance of the parent/carer role in a young person's mental health recovery. It is our assertion that this early intervention program will address early onset mental health problems in young people, resolving the problems or preventing their escalation and reducing the potential for lifelong negative impact.

This group provides:                                                                                                             

1) Psychoeducation & skills training: guiding parents/carers to support the recovery of a young person suffering with their mental health using our evidence-based clinical intervention.

2) Parental self-care: teaching parents how to care for their own mental and emotional health to best support their child.

 3) Navigating statutory support: Coaching parents/carers on how to access the support offered by schools, the NHS and non-statutory organisations.

4) Peer support: “A peer-support model is highly powerful in this area. Lived experience often speaks with more authority to people in crisis (and more generally suffering) than professional input, which can at times feel impersonal, invalidating, conflicted and can even be experienced as harmful in some instances.” - Dr D Starley.