Wellness Wednesday is sponsored by Intermountain Health
In a recent Harris Survey, 53 percent of American parents say back-to-school is the most stressful time of year.
Ashley Schlaigh, Pediatric Behavioral Health Director at Primary Children’s Hospital Miller Family Campus said it’s stressful on the kids too. But she has some tips on what we can do to help our kids cope.
“Back-to-School time can be especially anxiety provoking for children. So, it's important for parents to know what to expect, set routines and validate their children's feelings through this transition time.”
Your child is unique, so school might seem like a playground of social opportunities and satisfying intellectual stimulation while the same environment is a minefield for the child next to them.
“Letting your child know what to expect when they're transitioning back to school, such as, where's the bus stop, who is their teacher, what friends might be in their class? How are they getting home from school in the day, all of these can be really stressful moments for kids,” said Schlaigh.
What about when those moments turn into days?
“It's when the feelings start persisting for more than a few days, or a child becomes inconsolable, when we start feeling when we start getting a little bit more worried,” said Schlaigh.
That worry is only helpful if it triggers action to help your child. But how?
Schlaigh said, “It's normal to have hard days. It really is, but when we see a profound disability to cope with the stress and your child becoming inconsolable, that's a really good sign that it's time to start connecting to resources to help your child bounce back and get the mental health help that they need.”
Where do you start? There are free resources online.
“Intermountain Primary Children's has a wealth of resources available online for free for parents and guardians - talktotweens.org is a resource that anybody can connect with, and it's got conversation starters, tips, tricks, just resources to get those conversations going and get the information needed from your child so that you have a good understanding of what they're going through and how to respond,” said Schlaigh.
Primary Children’s Hospital also has teams trained to help families struggling with mental health crises.
Schlaigh explained, “We also have a very important resource that is called the SMR resource, which is a stabilization and mobile response team. What this service does is dispatch qualified mental health providers to your home to help families in need navigate the stabilization of children that are struggling. And this is a free service as well.”
So we parents need to pay attention and we need to be open avenues of assistance for our kids.
