Listening and Reassuring | sscconnectstudents

Wellbeing: Listening & Reassuring

It is important during times of change that we support each other's wellbeing as much as possible. This page is designed to provide tips and strategies to parents to supplement information provided to students.

Listening and reassuring

Each of our main mental health support providers have published information to support parents to have conversations about the current COVID-19 situation with their children. These websites also has a wealth of information to support the overall wellbeing of our young people.

Here are a few of the best we have found:

Headspace:

https://headspace.org.au/young-people/how-to-cope-with-stress-related-to-covid-19/

Online counselling support: https://headspace.org.au/eheadspace

ReachOut:

https://headspace.org.au/young-people/how-to-cope-with-stress-related-to-covid-19/

Online counselling support: https://headspace.org.au/eheadspace

Black Dog Institute:

The fact sheet from Black Dog Institute is one of our favourites for practical strategies to support your child:

https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/default-source/education-resources/black-dog-institute_reassuring-young-people-about-the-unknown_covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=0

This fact sheet includes strategies for talking about COVID-19 with your children such as:

Speak to them calmly and openly
Encourage them to ask questions
Ask them what they know and what they are worried about
Reassure them it's normal to be worried
Provide reassurance that as young people, they are relatively safe
Let them know that you will be available to talk and listen
Identify other responsible adults in their life that they can go to for support
Get the right information - eg. Department of Health rather than sensational 24hr media/social media
Let them know about family plans to keep people as safe as possible.

In addition to further information about each of the above points, there are practical strategies to reduce COVID-19 anxiety including discussing hand washing, coughing into elbows, giving students chores such as helping to prepare food. We encourage you to take a look at the fact sheet.

Looking after you:

Make sure you are also taking care of yourself during this time: https://www.smh.com.au/national/some-anxiety-can-be-helpful-how-to-manage-your-covid-19-fears-20200317-p54asa.html

Family Referral Service:

Simone from Barnardos is our College Family Referral Service (FRS) Worker. FRS can link you with services to help with:

Domestic violence
Financial assistance
Counselling and mediation
Child and Parenting programs
Youth support
Housing and accommodation
Mental health support and any other services you may need.

Simone can be contacted on 1800 066 757.

Resilience in Challenging Times Webinar:

I know a number of parents joined the Resilience in Challenging Times webinar with Dan Haesler on Tuesday afternoon that we mentioned in the post last week. For those who missed it, this is the link. https://cutthrough.webinarninja.com/live-webinars/253976?tok_reg=3ad982fe-7e32-4351-a970-40117b0ea0a4-99284448

The webinar utilised positive psychology to focus on practical strategies to support individual resilience.

Smiling Mind App:

The free Smiling Mind app is a way of supporting daily meditation and mindfulness exercises. It is available for any device.

https://www.smilingmind.com.au/