Parents are being encouraged to focus on being present, rather than giving presents, this Christmas to help children recover from the unseen effects of 2020’s mental health pandemic.
Derby family wellbeing service Bridge the Gap is warning parents to avoid over-doing their arrangements and schedule in down-time over the festive period in order to curb rising levels of anxiety among the city’s young people.
A non-profit-making organisation based in Friar Gate, Bridge The Gap provides a range of mental health services for children, young people and their families, says it has received a record number of inquiries from worried parents this year seeking advice on how to help their offspring deal with day-to-day life.
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Nikki Webster (left) and Jennifer Wyman, who run Derby family wellbeing organisation Bridge The Gap are advising parents to avoid over-doing Christmas arrangements to help children recover from a difficult and anxious year.
They say that children in the county have been badly affected by loneliness from not seeing their friends, lack of regular hobbies and sports and having to study at home while their schools were closed, or because they had to socially isolate.
In addition, families have also had to deal with the stress of parents losing jobs or being furloughed, as well as the cancellation of holidays and bans on visiting relatives.
And now comes Christmas, which is often a time of stress for many anyway, but which comes with an extra layer of uncertainty because usual plans, such as visiting relatives or going to church, have had to be scrapped to meet Covid-19 restrictions.
In short, says Bridge The Gap founder Jennifer Wyman, it threatens to be a festive recipe for disaster, which is why Bridge the Gap has published some new advice and developed a number of free resources to help parents and children get through Christmas.
The advice includes:
• Use grounding techniques and mindfulness at intervals through the day like taking a moment to look at your tree together or getting children to do restful activities such as wordsearches, jigsaws and colouring;
• Audit their bedroom environment – remove clutter, consider restful lighting and use relaxing colours;
• Be present – put away your phone and stay off social media so that you can concentrate on positive time together and connecting with your children.
Jennifer said: “Few people will emerge from 2020 unscathed but it’s been particularly hard on young people and many parents, who will also been affected by uncertainty at work, or by not seeing friends and families or having had long-arranged plans scrapped.
“It’s entirely natural that many parents will decide that they will go all out to make Christmas extra-special in order to make up for it, in which case I would urge caution, because overloading things can bring more problems.
“We’re not saying Christmas should be cancelled, just that families should find down-time amongst all of the presents and activity in order to create a mental space where children can unwind and relax.
“So often we assume that a good Christmas is all about treats and presents but when you actually ask your children, they just want to do something that involves the family spending quality time together.”
Jennifer, an experienced early years educator and nanny, founded Bridge The Gap after experiencing her own anxiety issues, and runs it with Nicky Webster, who is a qualified mental health nurse and behavioural family therapist.
It provides mental health services to schools and families, either in the form of one-to-one or group sessions in safe environments that suit individual needs, whether that is in school, private play therapy, or at its hub.
Much of its activity has been curtailed because of social distancing measures but that has not stopped the phone ringing, especially towards the end of the year.
Jennifer added: “There was already a mental health pandemic, but the coronavirus pandemic has sent numbers soaring and we are getting way more inquiries than at any other time in our history.
“The coronavirus has had a huge effect on young people’s health and we regularly get calls from parents who are in tears because their child is feeling anxious or depressed and they just don’t know what to do to help them.
“It’s heart-breaking, because so often they are held back by the stigma that still surrounds mental health and that makes it difficult for them both to acknowledge it and talk about it, let alone seek help.”
To access Bridge The Gap’s Calming Christmas resources visit www.jwbridgethegap.com/strategies-activities-free
