kinderbookswitheverything: 10th October World Mental Health Day

Sunday, October 2, 2022

10th October World Mental Health Day

Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority.

Every year in October, around the time of World Mental Health day on the 10th, people all over the world celebrate Mental Health Week. Mental Health Awareness Week is held annually in the second week of October. This year, Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 will be held from 10th-16th October.

We know that lockdowns have had an effect on the mental wellbeing of children. In December 2020, research showed that more than four in ten parents had seen their children display behaviours that suggested heightened anxiety since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Almost half of the 1,000 parents of four- to twelve-year-olds who took part in the survey in Britain said they felt that the pandemic had also “negatively impacted” on their children’s friendships.

This has given rise to issues such as stress, fear, anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, apprehensions towards the future, surfacing of the previous and past undiagnosed and untreated mental health disorders, fear, phobia, and obsessions of contamination, fear of physical interactions, fear of uncertainty leading to helplessness.

Schools can provide supportive platforms for children to share and talk about their feelings and fears to mental health professionals. They can render massive help by emphasising the importance of speaking out when disturbed or confused. This will help prevent and manage a lot of mental health issues that children could be facing. I work at a school that takes the wellbeing of the students very seriously. Class time is allocated regularly for Circle Time, Wellbeing sessions and wellbeing is always a focus at assemblies.

What is good mental health?

It is when we can cope with the stressors of our daily lives, participate in loving relationships, contribute to our community, and work towards our goals. So everyone has mental health, even children.

How many children have mental illness?

In 2013–14, an estimated 314,000 children aged 4–11 (almost 14%) experienced a mental disorder in the 12 months before the survey (Lawrence et al. 2015). Boys were more commonly affected than girls (17% compared with 11%).

ADHD was the most common disorder for children (8.2%), and the most common among boys (11%).

Anxiety disorders were the second most common disorders among all children (6.9%), and the most common among girls (6.1%).

More recent data, that factors in the pandemic, will probably show higher figures.

Teachers at my school frequently ask for books to support their Social and Emotional Programs, so there are shelves in the nonfiction section that now have many more books than they did in the past. There are books about feelings and emotions, books about neurodiversity, mindfulness, tolerance, resilience, growth mindset and general wellbeing.