Supporting Positive Mental Health with Kayleigh Mullen

Kayleigh Mullen - Registered Manager for Opal House.

Mental health awareness is something I take pride in as a manager and something I have a huge passion for supporting. It is important that we have Mental health awareness well as this shows the children and young people we support that they are not alone with their experiences. That being said, I do feel that it is important we consider mental health all year round; being reflective and understanding as to how this affects people as well as how we can do better in promoting positive mental health, supporting ourselves and those around us.

Within my career, I have supported children with understanding and managing their mental health in many different ways.

The creative practitioner in me has enjoyed creating self-soothing boxes. These include mindfulness colouring, coloured pens, positive affirmation cards, elastic bands, stress balls and lavender fragrance beads. These boxes have helped create a sense of calm and comfort for children in times where they may be feeling anxious overwhelmed. The activities within the box allow the children to be distracted, take their mind off any big worries and spend time simply just being a child, having fun and switching off.

A feelings journal is another way that has proven successful within my role. I have found that children often struggle with sharing how they are feeling as they can sometimes feel a sense of shame or worry to verbally discuss this. A feelings journal is a great way to share such big feelings, as well as being a positive way for difficult conversations to take place. Utilising coloured pens is a good way to categorise the worries, for example a child may use a blue pen when feeling upset, a red pen when angry. Using colours within the journal is a good way for the adults supporting our children to be able to identify what emotion the child is feeling so that they know how to carefully unpick this with them. A journal can also remain confidential, like a diary for a young person to note down their worries and concerns. It could also be used metaphorically where a young person could write down their feeling before ‘closing the book’ on these until they are ready to open up again.

Exercise is another way I have supported positive mental health with the children in our care. Whether this be a local bike ride, a walk, a trip to the gym or swimming, the children in our care are able to do this either independently or with a staff member. It is proven that such activities can improve a person’s sense of control, coping abilities and self-esteem and confidence.  Another positive with exercise is that it can relieve any pent up stresses in a physical way by burning energy ad big emotions.

In my 10 years of working with children and young people, no day is the same nor is no child so it is important to know that what may work for one young person could trigger another. A big focus or me when supporting children experiencing mental health issues is to get to know them as individuals. As practitioners we need to really understand the children we are looking after; their likes, dislikes, triggers, past trauma and current view of themselves. I truly feel by listening to children, allowing them to share how they are feeling without any judgement and showing them that you are there to support and keep them safe is one of the most important ways to help them feel a sense of security, which time will allow them to trust and accept the support being offered. It is then that we can sensitively help to improve and promote positive mental wellbeing.

Thanks for reading!