Supporting Your Young Person During the Holidays

Holidays can take students away from friends and their usual school supports.

Changes to routine can cause some young people to feel stressed, isolated and alone. Parent support is very important at this time.

Below is some information to help you support young people to stay in a healthy headspace in school holidays. There is also some information that may help you to identify when your young person might need some extra support and where to go for help.

“There are a number of ways you can support your young person’s mental health and wellbeing in the holidays:

1. “Encourage them to stay connected. Social relationships are important to your young person’s general wellbeing. It is okay if they take time out for themselves at times, but encourage them to keep in contact with friends over the holidays. Friends can provide both play and support and spending time with friends is also important for keeping and building on existing friendships. If your young person is not feeling up to going out, even a phone call, email, text message or Facebook message can help them to feel connected to friends and family.

2. “Encourage them to stay involved. Encourage involvement with volunteer work, hobbies, clubs or committees, or sports – these can help young people feel connected to their wider community. Participate with them when you can. Involve them in decisions and give them responsibility at home (e.g. deciding what to eat for dinner and helping to prepare it). Help them to identify and set realistic goals. Setting and achieving realistic goals can be incredibly motivating and can help build self-confidence.

3. “Encourage physical activity. Physical activity is important for everyone’s health and wellbeing. If your young person is feeling down or finding things are difficult, physical activity may be the last thing they feel like doing. But even small activities, like walking around the block, can help relieve stress and frustration, provide a good distraction from worrying thoughts, improve concentration and improve mood. If your young person is struggling to get active, find a physical activity that you both enjoy and can do together (e.g. swimming, playing sports with friends or cycling) and make a plan to do it regularly.

4. “Encourage a regular routine. Getting a good night’s sleep helps young people to feel energised, focused and motivated. Adolescence is a time when a number of changes to the “body clock” impact on sleeping patterns and young people are more likely to have problems with sleep. Developing a sleeping routine can help. Wake up around the same time each day, get out of bed when they wake up, and go to bed around the same time each night. Avoiding caffeine after lunchtime, having a quiet, dark and uncluttered bedroom and shutting down electronic devices before bed can also help them to get a good night’s sleep.

5. “Encourage healthy eating habits. Eating well doesn’t only reduce the risk of physical health problems, like heart disease and diabetes, it can also help with sleeping patterns, energy levels, mood, and general health and wellbeing. A good balanced diet with less junk food/ lots of sugars and more vegies, fruit, whole grains and plenty of water will ensure your young person has all of the vitamins and minerals to help their body and brain function well.

6. “Encourage play! Devoting time to just having fun can help to recharge your young person’s battery, revitalise their social networks and reduce stress and anxiety.

“Signs that may suggest that your young person is struggling:

“Changes in activity include: • Not enjoying or not wanting to be involved in things they would normally enjoy • Being involved in risky behaviour they would normally avoid • Unusual sleeping or eating habits Changes in thinking include: • Having a lot of negative thoughts • Expressing distorted thoughts about themselves and the world (e.g everything seeming bad and pointless).

“It is normal for young people to have ups and downs. However changes in mood, levels of participation and thinking patterns which persist for more than a couple of weeks may indicate that your young person needs extra support. “Changes in mood include: • Being irritable or angry with friends or family for no apparent reason • Feeling tense, restless, stressed or worried • Crying for no apparent reason, feeling sad or down for long periods of time

“Support service options:

• headspace centres provide support, information and advice to young people aged 12 to 25 – headspace.org.au

• eheadspace provides online counselling and telephone support to young people aged 12 to 25 – eheadspace.org.au 1800 650 890

• Kids Helpline is a 24-hour telephone and online counselling service for young people aged 5 to 25 – kidshelpline.com.au 1800 55 1800

• Lifeline is a 24-hour telephone counselling service – lifeline.org.au 13 11 1

• Parentline 1300 301 300

• ReachOut.com for information about well-being.”

Source: Headspace School Support

Wishing all our families the most wonderful Christmas and a well-deserved break.

Kristen Waldron

The Hamilton and Alexandra College Newsletter

Issue 37 · 05 Dec 2019

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