Children's Mental Health Week

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week (7-13 February 2022).

This year's theme is Growing Together with the aim of encouraging children (and adults) to consider how they have grown and how they can help others to grow.  

You’ll find lots of free resources on how to take part here.

Now in its eighth year, Children’s Mental Health Week was first launched by Place2Be in 2015 to highlight the importance of children and young people’s mental health.

Research shows that 1 in 6 children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement. Source: Place2BE

Children and young people with learning disabilities are more than four times more likely to develop a mental health problem than those without.

This means that 14 per cent of all children and young people with mental health difficulties in the UK will also have a learning disability.

Studies suggest that it is the wider risk factors that these young people and families experience, rather than their learning disability, that contributes to poorer mental health. Source: Children and Young People Now

This information pack from BOND a Young Minds Consortium provides a useful basic introduction to mental wellbeing and mental health problems in children and young people with learning disabilities.

We also found this a useful resource from Mentally Healthy Schools on understanding mental health in children and young people with both physical and learning difficulties.