Childline: Campaign raising awareness of the importance of parents’ mental health and impact on the family

Parents suffering with their mental health can have an impact on the whole family. Photo posed by models.

Our Childline counsellors know that every family is different, but there are many things which can cause stress within the home.

Family arguments, money worries, bullying or divorce and separation will create a stressful home environment which can cause a lot of worry and anxiety for children and young people.

This Thursday (JAN 30), is Parent Mental Health Day (PMHD), an annual campaign from mental health charity stem4, which aims to encourage understanding and awareness of the importance of parents’ mental health and its impact on the whole family.

According to the Mental Health Foundation approximately 68% of women and 57% of men with mental health problems are parents. And with reoccurring external factors like the cost-of-living crisis currently impacting families across the country, we must do everything we can to support each other during this challenging time.

We all know that in order to take excellent care of our children, we need to take care of ourselves too. There’s no such thing as a perfect parent and while one day can be calm, the next could be chaos.

The NSPCC offers support to parents here in the North East and across the country, and the dedicated Helpline is available to offer advice and support to parents and carers who are experiencing mental health issues, and to those who may also need some parenting help and advice. There are also lots of resources on the NSPCC website to help parents and parents-to-be to help ease any worries they may have.

Whether parents reach out for help or not, Childline is available to children and young people here and across the country around the clock. Whether they are worried about themselves, a parent or sibling, or just need to speak to someone about anything they are going through, our counsellors can help.

Mental health and wellbeing is one of the main reasons that young people contact Childline about. Our counsellors are always here to offer support, and the Childline website also has resources which could help – from meditation and relaxation exercises to moderated message boards where children can talk to their peers.