PARENTS and carers of teenagers are being invited to join a free webinar series run by headspace that gives support strategies to help them navigate the ups and downs of teenage mental health.

As the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, headspace is working hard to provide support to families and friends of young people living with mental ill-health.

“Currently rolling out across NSW, the series of free mental health education webinars are open to those who want to learn more about how to support young people aged 12 to 25 in difficult times,” Phillip Stone, Team Lead NSW, headspace Schools told News Of The Area.

In Term 1, 2022, the webinars will focus on the topics ‘Communicating with my young person’ and ‘Helping my young person during COVID-19’.

The webinars aim to support parents and carers of young people to:
• Strengthen their understanding of mental health
• Enhance the conversational approach to mental health and wellbeing with young people
• Build skills and strategies to support young people, including transitions to work and study
• Build awareness of local, state, and national supports available to young people

Joining each webinar will be a panel of experts, including local headspace centre staff and representatives from other local mental health services.

“The speakers will empower attendees to understand what services are available in their community.

“Attendees will also hear from the headspace Work and Study team about the suite of digital vocational services available for young people at headspace.

“Everyone who registers will also receive a digital information pack,” said Phillip.

The Mid North Coast event date is 28 February.

Visit the headspace website for all dates, contacts and information at https://headspace.org.au/services/parent-and-carer-events/.

Parents and carers are invited to register via booking website Eventbrite and they will receive a link to access the webinar at the scheduled time.

The headspace webinar program is funded by the NSW Ministry of Health.

After attending a previous webinar participants said the following:

“Many thanks for sending out this information.

“The workshop was fantastic – very relevant, informative and useful.

“This information and links to other workshops is also great.”

“As I come from a different cultural background, I’ve found the ways of connecting tips very useful to close the gap between the parents who are coming from different cultures and their children who have grown up in Australia.

“The way of communication is making a big difference when parents talk to their children who are going through some mental health issues.”

 

By Andrea FERRARI