Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (May 7th-13th) occurs in tandem with Mental Health Awareness Month. Both events are part of a greater national conversation on mental health awareness. Safe Schools joins the national movement to raise awareness about mental health and build an understanding of the significant role mental health plays in overall health and wellness.

Mental health refers to our emotional and social well-being and impacts how we think, feel, and behave. It plays a role in connecting with others, making decisions, handling stress, and many other aspects of daily life. Everyone has mental health, and it deserves your attention just as much as your physical health does.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mental health in childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones, learning healthy social skills, and being able to cope with problems. Mentally healthy children have a positive quality of life and can function well in school, at home, and in their communities.

Raising a child can be challenging. Even under the best circumstances, their behaviors and emotions can change frequently and rapidly. All children are sad, anxious, irritable, or aggressive at times, or they occasionally find it challenging to sit still, pay attention, or interact with others. In most cases, these are just typical developmental phases. However, such behaviors may indicate a more serious problem in some children.

Mental health — an essential part of children's overall health — has a complex interactive relationship with their physical health and their ability to succeed in school, at work, and in society. Both physical and mental health affects how we think, feel and act on the inside and outside.

Most mental health conditions do not have a single cause – they have many possible causes, called risk factors. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to develop a mental health condition in your lifetime. Mental health conditions can develop slowly, or symptoms can start to appear more suddenly after you have experienced a stressful event or big change.

• Trauma: situations like loneliness, seeing an accident, natural disasters, poverty, can all cause a trauma response.
  
• Biology and brain chemistry: a chemical imbalance in the brain is said to occur when the brain has either excessive or insufficient chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, can increase the chances of developing a mental health condition
  
• Habits and lifestyle: Things like not getting enough high-quality sleep, regularly unhealthy food choices, lack of exercise, and poor stress management can all play a role in developing a mental health condition.
  
• Substance use: using drugs or alcohol can trigger a mental health condition by affecting mood, sleep, relationships, and physical health.
  

A child’s healthy development depends on their parents—and other caregivers who act in the role of parents—who serve as their first sources of support in becoming independent and leading healthy and successful lives.

The mental health of parents and children is connected in multiple ways. Parents who have their own mental health challenges, such as coping with symptoms of depression or anxiety (fear or worry), may have more difficulty providing care for their child compared to parents who describe their mental health as good.

Whether you realize it or not, mental health plays a big role in your overall well-being. When you are mentally healthy, you are able to enjoy your life and the people in it, feel good about yourself, keep up good relationships, and deal with stress. It is normal for your mental health to shift over time – we all face difficult situations in our lives. Creating positive habits is a great way to support your mental health when you are doing well and helps you build skills to use if you do face symptoms of a mental health condition.

• Talk openly about mental health
• Educate yourself and your children about mental health
• Show empathy and compassion for those living with a mental health condition
• Be conscious of your language ‐ avoid words and phrases that perpetuate bias and discrimination
• Practice mental wellness
• Support online campaigns
• See the person, not the illness

Billie Eilish opens up about her personal connection to mental health. Learn more about how to start a conversation about mental health https://seizetheawkward.org.

safeschools@durantisd.org

The mission of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program is to help ensure that children are mentally and physically ready to learn and have healthy and supportive families, and to promote a safe community by equipping individuals with skills, knowledge, standards, and resources to live healthy lives.