Bloom: Growing Kids' Mental Well-being (2024)

FAQs

What does mental well being mean for kids? ›

Being mentally healthy during childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems. Mentally healthy children have a positive quality of life and can function well at home, in school, and in their communities.

Things that can help keep children and young people mentally well include: being in good physical health, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise. having time and freedom to play, indoors and outdoors. being part of a family that gets along well most of the time.

Having good emotional wellbeing or mental health usually means that someone is happy, healthy and safe, but can also include things like having good relationships with other people, a sense of purpose, and feeling in control of your life.

It could be small acts of kindness towards other people, or larger ones like volunteering in your local community. Some examples of the things you could try include: saying thank you to someone for something they have done for you. asking friends, family or colleagues how they are and really listening to their answer.

Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.

spending time with your children doing enjoyable activities. maintaining routines as much as possible – such as bed time and meal times. regularly asking your child how they are. acknowledging and respecting your child's feelings.

Children with good mental health feel loved, safe and secure in their environments. They also feel happy and positive about themselves most of the time. They're kind to themselves during tough times or when things don't go the way they expect. This means they feel OK about trying new or challenging things.

Encourage their interests

Support and encourage your child to explore their interests. Being active or creative, learning new things and being a part of a team helps connect us and boost our mental wellbeing.

What is emotional well-being for kids? ›

Emotional wellness can be described as the developing capacity of children (birth through age eight) to: experience, regulate, and express emotion; form close, secure, interpersonal relationships; and explore the environment and learn - all in the cultural context of family and community.

About wellbeing

It's a complex combination of a person's physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. In short, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.

There is some emerging consensus that childhood wellbeing is multi-dimensional, should include dimensions of physical, emotional and social wellbeing; should focus on the immediate lives of children but also consider their future lives; and should incorporate some subjective as well as objective measures.

When explaining to a child about how a mental illness affects a person, it may be helpful to make a comparison to a physical illness. For example, many people get sick with a cold or the flu, but only a few get really sick with something serious like pneumonia.

Good mental health means we can realise our full potential and feel safe and secure. It also means we thrive in everyday life. Mental wellbeing is our internal positive view that we are coping well psychologically with the everyday stresses of life and can work productively and fruitfully.

Mental health is a range of thoughts, feelings and experiences that make up your overall mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Your mental health can be impacted by a number of different things that are unique to you, so no one person's experience is the same.

With good mental health, we can think positively, feel confident and act calmly. With poor mental health, we might find that the way we're thinking, feeling or acting becomes difficult to cope with. We might not enjoy things we used to like doing. We might feel sad or angry for longer than usual.

Children's wellbeing is a combination of their physical, mental, emotional and social health. These elements all contribute to overall wellbeing, and it's important for parents, carers and educators to foster positive wellbeing in our children from an early age.