NPSC: Help available for parents concerned about children's mental health

 

The National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) is reminding parents that help is available, as concerns grow about children's mental health. 

 

Chief Executive Officer Kaysia Kerr says struggles among children and adolescents are not uncommon, but with early intervention, counselling and family support, they can often be addressed. 

 

The Commission is encouraging parents and guardians to seek assistance through school counsellors, community health services or parenting support programmes. 

 

"Sometimes children don't have the language to express how they're feeling. And that's the other thing, we just generally tend to use simple words to describe a plethora of emotions or a plethora of feelings. So if your child says for example that he's feeling bad, that's something to probe a little more because depending on who the child is, the child may not even understand what he or she's feeling. And that this is something that you can't ignore, you have to investigate. And when you feel that the situation could be outside of your own abilities, you should see that they should not have seek support," she urged.

 

Ms. Kerr noted that some parents believe children should be able to cope with the challenges simply because they themselves went through similar or even worse experiences.

 

"They might feel that if they went through it, their children should be able to cope. We don't want them to push those expectations on the children. They need to understand that the journey is different and coping threshold is also different, and so it's important that they ask what's going on in a very loving way and to be prepared for the answers too. And if they find that it's something that's outside of their scope, they should seek additional support," she reiterated. 

 

The CEO said the National Parenting Support Commission stands ready to help support parents and their children navigate these challenges.