As families prepare for their children to return to class, a recent national survey found that about 80% of parents think schools should employ mental health professionals.
“And the vast majority believe there should be a school counselor available to talk one-on-one with their kids every day,” said Rob Biscegli, executive director and president of Action for Healthy Kids, an organization that partnered with the CDC Foundation to commission the series of surveys.
The Parent and Child Mental Health Survey asked more than 1,000 parents and carers what worries them about their children’s wellbeing.
Some of the survey findings include:
• Almost two-thirds of parents would like training to better understand and support their children’s mental health and wellbeing.
• Nearly 70% of parents said their children feel safe and supported when they have at least one trusted adult at school they can talk to.
• Parents say the biggest barrier to their children getting mental health support at school is the children themselves not thinking they need help.
Best practices to help parents navigate their fears are put in parents’ hands on a new website, www.confidentconnections.org, which uses a “Say, Do, Learn” approach.
“There are educational resources on the site. There are opening materials too – how to talk to your kids about different issues – and things that families can do together to engage in those conversations,” Bisceglie said.
“Our main job was to translate the survey data into actionable, accessible resources based on what parents told us they needed,” says Anais Murphy, LMWS, MA, senior manager at Action for Healthy Kids.
Murphy helped create several resources, including age-specific prompts to spark after-school conversations and get kids talking about what happened that day.
“We have a resource called ‘Ages and Stages,’ which we’re really excited about, that really dives deep into social-emotional milestones and markers at every developmental age,” Murphy said.
The website offers guides for parents to talk to their children about a range of topics from social media to suicide, and serves as a resource for parents who aren’t sure how to start those conversations.
“There’s a growing sense of anxiety as we hear about a youth mental health crisis and we need tools to ease that anxiety,” Murphy said.
For more information, visit www.confidentconnections.org.
