The Importance of Self-Care for Children and Young People's Mental Health Workers: Prioritising Mental Health in the Workplace

Children and Young People's mental health workers play a crucial role in shaping the emotional and psychological well-being of the children and young people they support.

With the theme for World Mental Health Day 2024 being "It is Time to Prioritise Mental Health in the Workplace," the conversation around self-care for children's mental health workers is more relevant than ever.

Practitioners often support children and young people facing anxiety, depression, trauma, and other mental health challenges.  This work can be emotionally demanding and can lead to stress, overwhelm, vicarious trauma and burnout, and it can be easy for professionals to overlook their own well-being. In environments where practitioners deal with children and young people’s distress on a daily basis, it is essential that they have spaces to process their own emotions and to receive their own support.

Prioritising mental wellness in the workplace is not only beneficial to individual practitioners but it is also essential for ensuring that children and young people receive quality and timely support.

This can mean normalising conversations about mental health, offering peer support systems, regular supervision and providing access to therapy or counselling. Paying attention to wellness and incorporating activities like meditation, yoga, or fitness sessions into the workplace routine can also help practitioners to manage stress and maintain physical as well as emotional health.

Accessing training sessions or workshops on self-care, stress management, and work-life balance, as well as making space for creativity, hobbies and interests out with the workplace can also help practitioners develop tools to prioritise and maintain their mental health. Self-care is not a luxury but a necessity for children and young people’s mental health professionals and self-care isn’t just about personal well-being—it’s also a professional responsibility for individual practitioners and organisations.  

Embracing the 2024 theme "It is Time to Prioritise Mental Health in the Workplace," and integrating self-care and mental health practices into the workplace can create healthier, more sustainable environments for mental health workers and, ultimately, better outcomes for the children and young people they support.

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#NoChildShouldHavetoWaitforSupport

Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes... & eyes & ears & mouth & nose - joining the sensory, motor, interoceptive, proprioceptive and vestibular dots. A child development model of creative intervention

The Centre for Creative Therapeutic Practice is excited to launch their two-day course in Creative Therapeutic Practice to Support Children with Neurodiversity and/or Autism.  This course is endorsed by the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB).

⁠The significant year-on-year global increase of autism diagnoses presents a particular challenge for a Health Care system already under considerable stress. NICE guidelines recommend maximum waiting times of 13 weeks for clients referred for autism assessments, however waiting lists in the UK are generally around 5 times this length, preventing best practice from being implemented.⁠

This also means that creative therapists and other professionals are being referred more children and young people pre or post assessment and are required to adapt their interventions to address and support additional needs.

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Early creative intervention for autistic children and young people provides a unique golden opportunity to support development, social communication and emotional regulation, mitigating some of the more distressing accompanying symptoms.⁠

With significant experience in delivery and creative therapeutic service design for autistic children and young people The Centre for Creative Therapeutic Practice is delivering a 2 day training that will support practitioners working with autistic children and young people.

This course draws on researched interventions to combine theory and practice with opportunities to design effective interventions for autistic children and young people with the support of Mary Rose and Patricia. We also have the honour to include some sensory-motor exercises designed by autistic CYP.

Total cost for two-day course - £240 running on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st September 2024.  There is also an optional 2 day follow up course with tuition and supervision support from Mary Rose and Patricia.

Please follow the link below for more information.

Neurodiversity and/or Autism

Book Now

 #NoChildShouldHaveToWaitForSupport

Every Voice Matters: Using Creativity for Children's Mental Health Support

The theme of #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek 2024 is #MyVoiceMatters.

At the Centre for Creative Practice, supporting practitioners to hear children and young people’s voices is at the heart of what we do. 

Our Founding Directors Mary Rose Brady and Dr Patricia Watts highlight the role that creativity can play in helping every child and young person to have a voice.

For children and young people who may struggle with verbal communication, creative outlets such as art, music, or dance provide alternative ways to express  emotions, thoughts and experiences. 

Giving children and young people a creative outlet helps them to externalize and make sense of  their feelings.

By representing their emotions through art, children and young people can explore different aspects of themselves and their environment, helping them better understand their emotions and giving them a sense of control.

Creative activities, such as drawing or mindfulness exercises, can also help children and young people to relax and focus on inner thoughts and can offer strategies for self-regulation that can be used in a number of different settings.

Engaging in creative activities gives children and young people a sense of achievement that can positively impact their self-esteem, and showcasing their creativity also helps children and young people to build confidence. 

Being creative in a group setting can also facilitate social connection with peers and can promote a sense of belonging and shared experience.

Creativity is an effective  tool in  helping  adults to engage with children and young people and can aid important conversations about their emotional well-being and mental health.  This is all the more important for quieter voices, and for the children and young people who experience barriers to communicating verbally.

Incorporating creativity into therapeutic conversations with children and young people facilitates self-reflection, and can include activities such as journaling, personal artwork or storytelling.  

By integrating creativity with mental health awareness, children and young people’s practitioners can contribute to the overall well-being of the children and young people they support and help them to voice any issues that inhibit their well-being.

At the Centre for Creative Therapeutic Practice, we upskill the children and young people’s workforce, to recognise signs of mental health difficulties and apply creative therapeutic approaches to their practice to support children and young people effectively and timely, and in the here and now.

We are committed to supporting practitioners in their work with children and young people to facilitate therapeutic conversations through creativity and to ensure that the voices of all children and young people are heard and to promote the message that their voice matters.

For further information on how we support children and young people’s practitioners, follow the link to our services.

#NoChildShouldHaveToWaitForSupport

#ChildrensMentalHealthWeek 2024

#MyVoiceMatters

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