If you require mental health crisis support, please contact your local mental health services, your GP, or telephone 111 or the emergency services.

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Understanding mental health and wellbeing (for parents and carers)

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Not Enrolled
Price
Free
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This resource is for parents and carers who are wanting to support a child or young person. It discusses what mental health is and things that can benefit children and young people’s mental health. It then goes on to discuss the difficulties that young people may face, lists signs which may indicate that a young person is struggling with their mental health and offers suggestions that people can use to help them support a young person. There is also a collection of helpful website links that you can refer to.

This course has been reviewed by Sandra Leinster, Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP).

This course will take approximately 1 to 2 hours to complete, but this timing will depend on how fast you read and how long you spend on the activities and reflective questions. You do not need to complete the whole course in one go. If you leave and come back to the course, it will remember where you got up to.

Important:
Please note

If you would like to get a certificate for this course, you must mark each page complete. You can do this by pressing the ‘mark complete’ button at the bottom of each page.

Course updated: February 2025

Resources

Young Minds is a children’s mental health charity and provides a free parents helpline for anyone worried about a child’s emotional wellbeing or mental health. They can provide information and advice about how best to support your child. Their helpline number is 08088025544. You can also access their information for parents via the following link: 

Find help for parents Young Minds

Learning as much as you can about your child’s difficulties can help you understand how best to support them. The Royal College of Psychiatry provide a range of free leaflets and information pages on a range of issues for parents and carers regarding children’s emotional and mental health. Click the following link to go to their website and find information on mental health difficulties: 

The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Other sources of information and support:

Anna Freud have many resources for children and young people, you can access these via the following link: 

Children and young people's wellbeing (Anna Freud charity)

The Barnardo's website can be accessed by clicking the following link:

Barnardo's

You can access Childline's website by clicking the following link:

Childline

Family Lives may have useful information for you. They also offer a telephone helpline, email communication and a live chat. You can access their website via the following link:

Family Lives

You can access the Kidscape website for information on bullying via the following link:

Kidscape

Mental Health Foundation also have lots of information. You can access their information by clicking the following link:

Mental Health Foundation

You can access the Young Minds website by clicking the following link:

Young Minds