Children’s emotional well-being is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health helps them develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults. Things that can help keep children and young people mentally well include:

• being in good physical health, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise
• having time and freedom to play, indoors and outdoors
• being part of a family that gets along well most of the time
• going to a school that looks after the wellbeing of all its pupils
• taking part in local activities

Other factors are also important, including feeling loved, trusted, understood and safe. Children who are optimistic, and resilient, have some control over their lives and feel like they belong are more likely to have good mental well-being.

Wellbeing Lothian have produced a handy guide/list of some usefulresources and links for parents or guardian dealing with anxiety and worry concerns, covering a wide variety of potential issues and age groups. You can view it here.

https://www.wellbeinglothian.scot

The BBC Bitesize have really useful videos  to help children manage feelings of low mood, anger, bullying, better sleep health, dealing with family and relationship conflict

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zbpv9j6/resources/1

Young Minds is an excellent website with information, advice and support for young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. Tel: 0808 802 5544

Childline has a website who are concerned about safety and well-being of young people. The help and advice section has pages about bullying, abuse, homelessness, suicide and much more. (tel. 0800 1111) 

www.childline.org.uk 

Child Therapy at Edinburgh University

Edinburgh University offers a range of child therapy sessions. These sessions are delivered by experienced psychological therapists and supervised therapists in training. 

They can offer help to children and young people with emotional difficulties such as anxiety, low mood and depression. 

To find out more information, please email their department CPT@ed.ac.uk.

You do not need a GP referral to access this service, and whilst it is free, donations to the service are most welcome. 

Sleep Scotland has trained counsellors who can provide help and support to parents, carers and other family members, offering advice and support on good sleep practices for all children aged over 18 months living in Scotland. Teenagers can also contact us themselves.

They have a great website for parents and families with children and young adults with sleep issues.

Sleep support line : trained sleep counsellors are available to speak to from mon- thur 10am- 4pm. You can contact the sleep advisors  via email on sleepsupport@sleepscotland.org

Sleep counselling support to families for children or young adults  of 18 months to 18 yrs via email on sleepsupport@sleepscotland.org, They work with families over a series of sessions with the first being an initial assessment of the problem and then providing a bespoke sleep plan for your child and their situation.

Sleep support for parents and carers: Download this very useful booklet to help your child sleep better. click here

They also give advice about how to manage on sleep terrors ,sleep walking, nightmares, bed wetting, sleeping issues with toddlers.

Below are a list of useful links for children who have experience grief / bereavement of a family member.

www.winstonswish.org.uk - charity for bereaved children and their families after death of parent or sibling

www.childbereavement.org.uk - supports families and educates professionals when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement.

www.crusescotland.org.uk - does support children and young people who are experiencing bereavement - the target youth-specific website from Cruse is www.rd4u.org.uk 

Home Start North and South West

www.hsew.org.uk

Tel.  0131 553 7819

Email: help@hsew.org.uk

Home Start work with anyone with a parent with a child under five in the South West and North West of Edinburgh. They can make home visits to support.

The volunteers are carefully matched with families and visit for up to two hours a week to provide emotional and practical support as needed. That may be as simple as someone to talk to or may mean someone playing with or reading to the children, support to keep appointments or finding out what is available locally. Support is completely individual to a family's unique needs. Home Start also run baby massage groups and PEEP groups. The PEEP groups help parents learn about and encourage their babies' learning and development. There are also Baby Massage groups.

Young Minds has a great website with a useful guide with practical tips and support for parents on how to approach children with challenging behaviour such as:

• anger outbursts,
• biting and hitting others,
• damaging things,
• bullying
• getting into trouble at school

Tel: 0808 802 5544 www.youngminds.org.uk

Information about positive ways of managing behaviour can also be found at: www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk