Student Wellbeing Resources
1 Looking after your mental health whilst self-isolating
YoungMinds is the UK’s leading charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. https://youngminds.org.uk/
YoungMinds’ blog on ‘Looking after your mental health while self-isolating’ it includes tips on:
Staying connected
- Staying calm
- Dealing with stressful situations at home
- Helpline and Resources
As well as the activity suggestions on the Youngminds blog, here are a couple more:
Illustrator Wendy Macnaughton is doing a daily art class for kids in Instagram – #wendymac 🖼
Audible Free stories for kids of all ages. Audible Stories is a free website where kids of all ages can listen
2 Coronavirus Explained
Do you want to understand a bit more about coronavirus? Understanding more about coronavirus can help to alleviate stress and worries. NPR have created a comic – Just for Kids: A Comic Exploring the New Coronavirus ‘Kids, this comic is for you. It’s based on a radio story that NPR education reporter Cory Turner did. He asked some experts what kids might want to know about the new coronavirus discovered in China. To make this comic, we’ve used his interviews’.
There is also this great cartoon explanation of Coronavirus, download the PDF for free click here
3 Wellbeing Apps
eQuoo: Emotional Fitness Game
The eQuoo app uses adventure games designed by psychologists to help you increase your emotional fitness and teach you new psychological skills. You’ll also find tips on how to communicate more effectively and maintain your mental wellbeing.
Feeling Good: positive mindset Relax your body and mind with a series of audio tracks designed to help you build confidence, energy and a positive mindset. Available on Apple and Android
MeeToo The MeeTwo app provides a safe and secure forum for teenagers wanting to discuss any issue affecting their lives. You can anonymously get advice from experts or other teenagers going through similar experiences in areas such as mental health, self-harming, relationships and friendships.
Mindful Gnats An app to help young people develop mindfulness and relaxation skills.
MindShift is a free app designed to help teens and young adults cope with anxiety. It can help you change how you think about anxiety. Rather than trying to avoid anxiety, you can make an important shift and face it. Lists symptoms of anxiety. Offers strategies to manage worry, panic, conflict, ordinary anxiety, and three specialised categories of anxiety: test anxiety, social anxiety, and perfectionism. Also contains relaxation exercises
Mood Tracker A website/app which lets you track moods and sleep patterns helping to manage depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.
MoodGYM is a free, fun, interactive program to help young people with low mood. Based on cognitive behaviour and interpersonal therapy, it consists of five modules, which help you to explore: – Why you feel the way you do – Changing the way you think – Knowing what makes you upset – Assertiveness and interpersonal skills training
SuperBetter is a free web and app based programme created by game designers. Playing SuperBetter helps build personal resilience: the ability to stay strong, motivated, and optimistic even in the face of difficult challenges. Resilience has a powerful effect on health – by boosting physical and emotional well-being. SuperBetter is for young people over the age of 13 who who want to feel happier, healthier, and more able to reach their goals.
Three Good Things: A Happiness Journal. This app is simple and easy-to-use, helping children focus on the positive and recognizing what went well today. (Ages 6 and up.) Every child gets to list three things daily that went well, which begins to train their mind to look for things to appreciate and begin a gratitude practice.
Apps for specific issues
BlueIce is an evidenced-based app to help young people manage their emotions and reduce urges to self-harm. It includes a mood diary, a toolbox of evidence-based techniques to reduce distress and automatic routing to emergency numbers if urges to harm continue.
Calm Harm is an app designed to help people resist or manage the urge to self-harm. It’s private and password protected.
Recovery Record is the smart companion for managing your journey to recovery from eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, obsessive eating disorder, binge eating disorder and compulsive eating disorder.
Mindfulness Apps
SmilingMind is modern meditation for young people from 7 years up. It is a free web and App-based program, designed to help bring balance to young lives. Smiling Mind was created in Australia and is aimed at helping young people de-stress and stay calm. There are tailored programmes for different age groups.
Breathing is a key part of meditation. Here are some deep breathing exercises to help with feelings of panic or worry.
Headspace (for Kids). This app teaches parents and children together about meditation for different age levels. They focus on Calm, Kindness, and Bedtime.
4 Helplines and Services
Get Urgent Help:
YoungMinds Crisis Messenger service – Save their Crisis Messenger number on your phone. Text YM to 85258 for free 24/7 mental health support if you are having a mental health crisis.
Emergency services (999) If you or someone you live with is seriously injured, call 999.
Further support:
OneSpaceTo – support hub
Kooth – a free, confidential online counselling service
Childline – if you’re under 19 you can confidentially call, email or chat online about any problem big or small, freephone 24/7 helpline: 0800 1111, sign up for a childline account on the website to be able to message a counsellor anytime without using your email address, chat 1:1 with an online advisor
Samaritans if you’re in distress and need support, you can ring Samaritans for free at any time of the day or night. Freephone 116 123 (24 hours) or email: jo@samaritans.org
The Mix if you’re under 25 you can talk to The Mix for free on the phone, by email or on their webchat. You can also use their phone counselling service, or get more information on support services you might need. Freephone: 0808 808 4994 (1pm – 11pm daily)