Coronavirus Advice and Guidance for Children and Young People

Advice for Children and Young People during Coronavirus

• We know that lockdown is difficult for families, so City of York Council have also created a short newsletter for parents and young people to provide useful information all in one place.
• Barnados have created an advice hub with blogs, tools, and resources to help young people access information and support.   
• Childline have created top ten tips for children on coping during lockdown.
• The Children's Commissioner has written a Childrens Guide to the Coronavirus. It answers your questions about coronavirus, tells you how to stay safe and protect other people and helps you make the best of your time at home.
• Childline has created a new web page with information about Coronavirus. It includes info on what coronavirus is; where you can find help if you are worried; coping with staying at home; and what to do if you feel unwell.
• Some things that happen in the world can make you feel scared, confused and unsafe, or like you don't have any control. However you feel, it can really help to share feelings and get support. Childline have a great page on how to deal with worries about the world.
• Relate also has useful advice for children and young people.

Your guide to Mental Health

 Young Minds have some great blogs about what to do if you are anxious about Coronavirus and how to look after your mental health while self-isolating.

Please also see our Children and Young People Mental Health page for more useful tips.

Keeping well: mental fitness, listening and suicide prevention

There are simple things we can all do to help prevent suicide.

The importance of listening, kindness, and caring are all themes that have come up more often than usual during this pandemic. These are all very meaningful behaviours which we can all use by developing our awareness and skills to offer these in simple and straightforward ways.

This BBC news article gives a great practical summary about how you can develop your listening skills. The article talks about the S H U S H method: 

• S how you care
• H ave patience
• U se open questions (questions that can be answered with yes or no)
• S ay it back
• H ave courage 

The Kindness website provides tips on kindness that are founded in evidence about why kindness is so important. They have recently conducted a survey on what are the most valued acts of kindness during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The Action for Happiness website has a range of resources that are focussed on kindness and provides examples of acts of kindness, and links to the useful reports such as this Mental Health Foundation report about the evidence of the importance of kindness. 

A recently launched campaign #feelrealyork aims to encourage people to share how they feel, to support people to talk and listen, details can be found at the NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group website. 

Suicide is a very sensitive issue which many of us can find difficult to talk about. Sometimes this arises from people’s personal or professional experiences of suicide. Often, it can be because people find the topic uncomfortable, worry they may say the wrong thing, appear insensitive, or be out of their depth.  To help you build skills and confidence to be able to support suicide prevention, the Zero Suicide Alliance organisation provides free suicide prevention training which can be accessed Zero Suicide Alliance website, or also from the Talk Suicide website. It is a short, straightforward and clear online course that can be taken by anyone, providing practical and useful ways to help keep people safe. 

You can find help and support also on the www.livewellyork.org.uk site here or York Mental Health Directory here. 

Common myths associated with suicide are unhelpful. This HelpGuide article explains many of these in more detail. Probably the most common myth, is that talking about suicide may give someone the idea. This is not true, talking about suicide can help someone who is having suicidal thoughts feel able to seek help.  Suicide is also not inevitable and talking about it can help prevent it.

If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, please T A L K: 

• T ell someone what you are thinking and how you are feeling
• A sk for their help, or seek help
• L isten to their advice or advice from others
• K now who to call in a crisis and keep the number with you at all times

You can call the Samaritans 24 hour helpline on 116 123, ring 111 to access mental health services - 24/7, 365 days a year, or contact your General Practitioner (GP). If you do not have a GP or do not know your GP's telephone number, please call 111.