Why is Mental Health and Wellbeing important?

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The Department for Education acknowledges that in order to help pupils succeed, schools have an important role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy.

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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.

What is Mental Health?

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What is Wellbeing?

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An overall sense of wellness will not be achieved without having a balance in these key elements:

• Physical. This includes lifestyle choices that affect the functioning of our bodies. What we eat and how active we are will affect our physical wellbeing.

• Emotional or psychological. This is our ability to cope with everyday life and reflects how we think and feel about ourselves.

• Social.  This is the extent that we feel a sense of belonging and social inclusion. The way we communicate with others, our relationships, values, beliefs, lifestyles and traditions are all important factors of social wellbeing.

• Spiritual. This is the ability to experience and integrate meaning and purpose in life. Achieved through being connected to our inner self, to nature or even a greater power.

• Intellectual. It is important to gain and maintain intellectual wellness as it helps us to expand our knowledge and skills in order to live an enjoyable and successful life.

• Economic. Economic wellness, in short, is our ability to meet our basic needs and feel a sense of security.

It is about our thoughts, feelings, emotions and ability to react to life. Even when we are met with a challenge, good wellbeing gives us the ability to cope. Sometimes our wellbeing is affected by daily pressures and sudden changes in our lives, such as: an illness, family situations and changes to our normal day to day routines.

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When our wellbeing is affected we find our feelings can get out of control, which will lead to sudden spurges of, sadness, anger, depression and we find that we cannot cope with normal daily routines. It is important children and young people and adults are encouraged to find ways to express themselves in order to look after their mental health and wellbeing.

What does ‘express yourself’ mean?

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Expressing yourself is about finding creative ways to share feelings, thoughts or ideas. This may be through painting, journaling, dancing, or maybe just having a chat with a friend.

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There may be many ways we choose to express ourselves. It may change depending on the situation we find ourselves in and will be different for others. The most important thing is to find what works for you, in that moment, so you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts and feelings.