How to talk about children’s mental health

Many of the dominant assumptions, or mindsets, we hold about children’s mental health make it harder to see the role that children’s surroundings play in shaping their mental health. From whether they have a safe, warm home, to a neighbourhood with space to run and play. This makes it harder to build support for solutions to promote children’s mental health.

We need a new story that shows what good mental health is and how it is created. A story which explains the factors shaping children’s mental health today. A story that shows how we prevent poor mental health, and provide the right support, at the right time, to help children thrive.

This toolkit – developed in partnership with Impact on Urban Health – provides four practical framing recommendations to do just that.

To dig deeper into the mindsets that people hold on children’s mental health, you can also check out the research briefing which accompanies this toolkit.