Topics for this month:
‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign
Every Mind Matters campaign has been launched to support people to take action to look after their mental health and wellbeing and to help support others such as family and friends. The new campaign aims to support the nation’s mental health, as half of adults say they are more worried during this current lockdown than in March 2020.
The campaign encourages people to get a free NHS-approved ‘mind plan’ from the Every Mind Matters website. By answering 5 simple questions, adults will get a personalised action plan with practical tips to help them deal with stress and anxiety, boost their mood, sleep better and feel more in control. Over 2.6 million mind plans have been created since it launched in October 2019.
There is also an Every Mind Matters COVID-19 hub which includes practical tips and support on how adults can deal with uncertainty, how to cope with money and job worries and how to look after both their own and their family’s mental wellbeing while staying at home.
The research found that almost half (49%) felt that the pandemic has impacted negatively on their mental health and wellbeing (53% of women and 45% of men). Of those surveyed, significant proportions of the population said they had been experiencing more anxiety (46%), stress (44%), sleep problems (34%) and low mood (46%) over the course of the pandemic.
The following were the most common reasons people thought the lockdown had negatively impacted their mental health:
- 56% missing friends and family; and loneliness 33%
- 53% uncertainty about the future; with financial and employment worries 27%
- 53% worried about family’s safety and health
The campaign is supported by a coalition of leading mental health charities, including Mind, Samaritans, Young Minds and Rethink.
Better Health – Every Mind Matters also offers information and videos to help young people look after their own mental health and provides dedicated support to help parents and guardians look after the mental wellbeing of the children and young people they care for.
For more information, please visit this link – https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/
Women’s Aid
Women’s Aid is a national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children. It aims to be a lifesaving frontline domestic abuse service, supporting women and children at the most challenging times of their lives.
What is domestic abuse?
Women’s Aid define domestic abuse as an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence. In the majority of cases by a partner or ex-partner, but also by a family member or carer. It is common in the vast majority of cases to be experienced by women and is perpetrated by men.
Domestic abuse can also include, but is not limited to the following –
• Financial or economic abuse
• Harassment and stalking
• Online or digital abuse
• Breaking down the victims contact with their family and friends.
When you contact Women’s Aid, they promise they will –
• Never judge you or what you say.
• Always have a fully trained female support worker available
• Give you space to explore your options.
• Support you to make safe choices for you and your children.
• Keep everything you tell confidential
Women’s Aid Covid-19 resource Hub for survivors
If you are looking for support during the Covid-19 lockdown, there are a range of downloadable resources and advice available for survivors, friends and community members.
There is a survivor’s handbook on the website with advice, support and information for all aspects of domestic abuse, such as women’s housing, safety planning, and dealing with police.
There is also a forum where you can speak to other women in a supportive community of domestic abuse survivors.
You can also email: helpline@womensaid.org.uk which goes straight through to a Women’s Aid domestic abuse support worker.
The Women’s Aid Live Chat
Women’s Aid realise talking to someone else about your personal life can be hard, but getting in touch for help can be your first and most important step. If your behaviour has changed because of how your partner treats you or your children, this can be the sign of an unhealthy or controlling relationship. Please access the link for more information.
https://chat.womensaid.org.uk/
‘Ask for ANI’
Since the 14th January, victims of domestic abuse have been able to access much needed support from thousands of pharmacies across the UK, backed by the government.
The Ask for ANI scheme allows those at risk or suffering from abuse to discreetly signal that they need help and access support. By asking for ANI, a trained pharmacy worker will offer a private space where they can understand if the victim needs to speak to the police or would like help to access support services such as a national or local domestic abuse helplines.
As an essential retailer based on high streets across the country, and with specifically trained staff, pharmacies can provide a safe space for victims to sound an alarm if they are isolated at home with their abuser and unable to get help in another way.
Kooth
Kooth is a leading digital mental health and wellbeing company who provides a free welcoming space for digital mental health care. Kooth offers mental health and emotional support for children and young people aged between 11 – 24 years and is available up to 10pm every day.
1 in 5 children and young people suffer from a mental health illness in any given year. At Kooth, they believe every young person has the right to thrive and to access high quality mental health care.
Kooth.com is commissioned by the NHS, local authorities, charities and businesses to provide anonymous and personalised mental health support. With over 4000 logins per day, they provide end to end support whatever the need. The support is available and safe to access for children and young people seeking professional support.
Symptoms of mental illness in young people include:
• Anger
• Substance abuse.
• Isolation, or being “a loner”.
• Antisocial behaviour.
• Delusions
• Confused thinking
• mood swings, changes in character
• Hallucinations
Services offered by Kooth
- Online chat service to chat with a counsellor for free mental health support and advice.
- Daily journal to write about your feelings each day to track your emotions and worries and check how you are doing. There is also a coping box which can be used to help improve mental health and well-being, with coping strategies and techniques that may help to meet individual needs.
- Discussion boards give an opportunity to start or join a conversation online with the Kooth community. The child or young person can interact with others to help mental health and well-being were appropriate.
You can apply online at www.kooth.com removing the need for Apple/Android accounts, data requirements and the stigma of mental health apps on your devices.
On every part of the Kooth platform, they ask for feedback on functionality and measure outcomes. 94% of the children and young people would recommend Kooth to a friend. https://www.kooth.com
Prevent Act Early campaign videos
As part of their ACT Early campaign, Counter Terrorism Policing have added two new animated 2-minute explainer films about Prevent to their ACT Early website and partners’ toolkit.
These can be viewed here:
https://actearly.uk/support/reach-out-for-help/
https://actearly.uk/working-together/how-we-help/
The films are aimed at a general public, concerned friends and family audience, and provide an introduction to Prevent and to the work of Prevent officers.
The aim of the ACT Early campaign is for more people to be encouraged and assured to seek help at an earlier stage where appropriate.
Tiktok – Family safety mode and screen time management
Early in February 2020, TikTok introduced a new feature, Family Safety Mode, which it refers to as ‘digital wellbeing’ features. Family Safety Mode allows a parent to link their TikTok account to their child’s account.
Once enabled parents will be able to manage the digital wellbeing features, which are:
- Screen time management – control how long your child can spend on TikTok each day.
- Direct messages – limit who can send messages to the connected account or turn DM’s off completely.
- Restricted mode – restrict the appearance of content that may not be appropriate for all audiences.
How to enable Family Safety Mode
- To enable Family Safety Mode, you first of all need to have the TikTok app on your (parent/carer) device and be logged in to your account.
- At the top right you will see 3 dots. Tap on these which will take you into the Privacy and Settings menu.
- Scroll down to Digital Wellbeing and tap, you will be presented with the 3 options.
- Firstly, tap on Family Safety Mode in order to activate the feature. Tap on parent and your child will then need to scan the QR code in order to link the two accounts.
- You can now activate the screen time management feature, where you can manage the amount of screen time you allow (40, 60, 90 and 120 minutes). You will then set a password which prevents your child going over their allocated time.
- Once this is done, it’s recommended you activate Restricted Mode which is a feature to prevent your child seeing inappropriate content.
- It’s also recommended you limit who can send messages to the connected account or turn off Direct Messaging completely and also ensure your child’s account is set to Private
UPDATE: On 13/01/21, TikTok announced they would be making additional improvements to the app, specifically for younger users. All users who have registered as aged between 13 and 15, will now have their accounts set to ‘private’ by default, allowing children to make an informed choice about who they are sharing with.
This is a good decision by TikTok, but fundamentally relies on the user indicating their correct date of birth at sign-up. More info on this can be seen here: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/strengthening-privacy-and-safety-for-youth
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