Improving Your Child's Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being

Tips to Help Improve your Child’s Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being

Parents play an important role in the healthy development of their children. In today’s world, there is a big focus on mental health and supporting children to boost their self-esteem and self-confidence, but the amount of information at our fingertips can be very overwhelming. The Zebra Centre has put together a few tips for parents to help identify when their child may be struggling, respond to their child’s behaviour and promote their child’s emotional well-being.   

How can I tell if my child is struggling?

Many children who are struggling will express themselves with behaviours that are different from their “normal”. Some of these behaviour changes could look like: 

• Negative talk about themselves, blaming themselves for things beyond their control

• Difficulty concentrating

• Increased feelings of worry, guilt, fear, irritability, sadness, anger, helplessness, loneliness and rejection

• Loss of interest in activities they enjoy

• Changes in school performance

• Overreacting or sudden outbursts of anger or tears

• Changes in appetite and sleep patterns

• Difficulty relaxing and sleeping

Every child is different and will express themselves in a different way. As parents, it is important to pay attention to your child’s behaviour. When you notice a change, talk to you children about what might be going on instead of reacting to the behaviour. This will help yourself and your child separate their feelings from their behaviour. These conversations can help teach children to work through their negative feelings and problem solve in the future. As one article states, “Feelings are like important road signs if we understand them and listen to them, they can teach us where to go next and what to look for,” (7 tips to improve your child’s mental health and emotional well-being).

How do I start building healthy emotional well-being?

Whether you believe it or not, you have a lot of power in helping your child develop healthy emotional well-being as a parent. Here are a few tips that you can incorporate into your parenting routine:

• Encourage, don’t discourage

As a parent, it is likely that you have a vision of what you would like your child’s future to be. However, this vision may be different from what your child wants for themselves. It is important to encourage your child to be true to themselves, even if it is different from what you had hoped for. Pay attention to your child’s interests and allow them to try new things. Your child’s journey is complex and it is important to empower your child to make decisions and explore who they are. As a parent, your unconditional acceptance means a lot to your child. 

• Provide an emotionally and physically safe place for your child to grow

Creating a place where your child feels safe emotionally and physically is important. Disciplining with respect and not shame, normalizing feelings by talking about them, and demonstrating patience are a few strategies to consider. In today’s world, parents should set healthy boundaries with children, especially around internet safety. Explaining why a boundary is in place and including your child in the decision-making process can demonstrate to your child that their voice is important.

• Model the behaviour you want to see

Kids pick up and model the behaviours they learn from the people around them. Parents can teach children healthy patterns by modelling the behaviours they want to see. For example: openly sharing feelings, practicing self-care, treating others with respect, disengaging from technology and using body-positive language, etc.  

• Stop and think before you react

Before reacting to a child’s behaviour, it is important to stop and think through your response. Instead of disciplining with shame, use respect. Instead of yelling and nagging, see the situation as a teaching opportunity. Again, model how you would like your child to manage conflict in their own lives. 

Making changes can be challenging, however, helping your child improve their emotional wellbeing is worth it! For more information, check out the resources below. 

Check out this great resource activity booklet by Jennifer Jorgensen, Recreation Therapist, CTRS. Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing!

Resources:

https://parentswithconfidence.com/everyday-ways-to-nourish-a-childs-mental-health/

https://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/mental_health

https://www.carizon.ca/7-tips-improve-childs-mental-health-emotional-well/

Resources to Report Child Abuse:

Edmonton Police Service: 780-423-4567

RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police): Your local detachment

Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-387-5437

Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 or Text CONNECT to 686868

Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477

Online exploitation tip line: cybertip.ca

Submission by Zebra Child Protection Centre

Mad Love Monday | Aisha Turna - Fairly Dental Staffing

My name is Aisha and I am the Founder of Fairly Dental Staffing. I was born in Toronto and my family and I moved to Montreal shortly after. I was raised there until the age of 9, and then moved to Edmonton. My family is from Tanzania, Africa and my roots are traced back to India.

My interests include travelling, picking up new skills, and getting creative. I love dental hygiene and how much value I bring to patients by keeping their teeth in their mouths!

I'm a total people person. I went into the field because I didn't know what to do after high school but for some reason I wanted to study in Toronto where my home town is! My mom is a dental assistant and she recommended a program in Toronto specifically for Dental Hygiene. I hadn't even researched properly what the job entailed, I just got excited to move to Toronto and agreed to go! I was 19 at the time and had finished high school 9 months prior to going. Oddly enough, I was one of the younger students in class at the private school I attended.

Toronto is like my second home, I visit the city frequently. The city is very lively and I love the vibes.
I was a Temporary Dental Hygienist most of my career because I cannot stay in one office as I feel my growth is limited. Exploring different offices, meeting fellow dental professionals from dental offices, and meeting patients from all walks of life is very rewarding. It made me very happy knowing that I was referred to as "gentle hands" from my patients!

I was working with Dental Temp Agencies and gradually became self employed and worked between a few offices. I loved being independent and having a flexible work schedule. I wanted the flexibility because I love travelling! I've traveled around Europe, USA, Canada, and Africa. My next ventures will be India and Thailand, hopefully when COVID-19 clears up.

I graduated dental hygiene in 2012 and have been working since. I can adjust well to my surroundings and work with alot of dental offices in Edmonton currently.

The idea of creating an app came to me one day when I was sitting down doing my year end paper work. I had been so use to getting texts and emails for shifts and having to fill out lots of paper work per shift just to get paid. There would be times where I would get 15-20 texts a day just regarding new shifts! A few times, the  texts would get lost in translation between Temps/Temp Agencies and I would show up to offices with no shift or being double booked. Yikes! As I was putting together my year end paperwork, I thought to myself "wait a minute.. why isn't there an app for this?!" I began to write the idea down. I sat on this for a year and then one day it occurred to me that I wanted to take a chance at doing something I am passionate about before I leave this world! An invention of my own. And thus, Fairly began. Fairly was a random name I came up with. It made me think of the word FAIRY and FAIR. I love the idea of tooth fairies and I wanted to create a system in which the pricing is fair, the app is fairly easy to use; and  I combined them and that's how FAIRLY was created. Random. But it seemed to work! Dental Offices have a Web App in which they create shifts. Temps pick up the shifts with a Mobile App.

Fairly has been successfully running for over a year now. I'm a one woman show bootstrapping my way through! I ran the business in Edmonton and now I am looking to expand to the rest of North America. I will start with major Canadian cities such as: Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto. If you are reading this and you are a dental professional, please join us by downloading "Fairly Staffing" on Google Play or the Apple Store.

It has been such an amazing journey going from being an employee to self contracted to a business owner helping people find work! I've built some amazing relationships in this past year and will continue to do so. I recently reduced the placement fees of the web app for Dental Offices from $35 to $25 a placement. In the dental field, everyone knows that getting a Temp can be quiet expensive and can take time. With the use of Fairlys technology, find coverage with a faster turnaround and let us do the work of finding the right Temp for your office. Using our built in review system, registration ID verification, and work experience - we will help you find the coverage you need at a low cost.

Save time and money and create a shift when you need coverage. Instantly, over hundreds of Temps will get notified at once and be able to pick up a shift quicker. Temps, get a peace of mind knowing that you will get paid much more than a typical Temp Agency because Fairly is a shift filling platform that does not take a significant chunk of your hard earned wages.

This has been such a lovely journey and I look forward to connecting with more amazing dental professionals and dental offices in the near future!

Email Address support@fairlystaffing.com

Website www.fairlystaffing.com

Instagram instagram.com/fairlystaffing

Facebook facebook.com/fairlystaffing

A Message from our Co-Founders

As two white-privileged women, this week has been a real eye opener for us. It has been a time that has left us sitting with uncomfortable, even overwhelming feelings. When we stumbled through our responses, frozen with fear of saying the wrong thing, and sometimes acting ignorantly we were knocked off our rockers to say the least.

We made mistakes that disappointed and hurt feelings of our fellow community members, and because of this, we have taken the time needed to deeply reflect on how we could do something more meaningful than just respond and post platitudes on social media.

We want to show up and fight racism and help make this a turning point for ourselves, and the community we respect and champion so dearly. As such, we will continue to make everlasting change that supports diversity and inclusiveness within our business and the community we have created.

Upon reflection, we have come to understand that growing up, we did not have conversations about systemic racism and our white privilege has been blind to us. And while we have not been perfect in advocating change to address this issue, we are trying to advocate now.

We want to burst this bubble of white privilege we live in. To help make this time in our history a turning point, here is what we are working on. We will continue to engage in difficult conversations, especially with those who have challenged us. Listen as much as possible, which includes reviewing the feedback you have shared. Educate ourselves by using all the resources available to us.

We will continue to support Black women within our community, as members, as contractors, and as collaborators while we elevate our understanding of not only their personal struggles but the struggles they face as small business owners in our community! We will also remain sensitive to the reality that the journey for small business owners is not a one-size-fits all experience.

Learning more about the systemic barriers women of colour encounter is a vital step. Determining how we can support those facing those systemic barriers is what we will put into action. We will use our platform to advocate in ways that is authentic to us on Anti-Racism and Systemic Racism Education. 

We know we will get stuff wrong along the way, but we will learn from those experiences. This will be a long road as we need to unlearn much of what has been instilled in us, but our drive to make ourselves better, to challenge one another, to improve society and to change is real. We are sorry it took so long for us to get here. Our ignorance is not bliss. It’s a sick-to-your- stomach feeling of how disappointed you feel for being uneducated of the human experience of others and therefore ignorant in your past thoughts and actions. It’s heavy. But we won’t stop because of how important this is. 

We invite you on this journey with us. Please review some of the resources we have shared on our online platform to become better informed and comfortable in sharing your knowledge with others. We are pleased many of our community members are already taking action and swiping up, clicking links and taking the time to learn more. Let’s keep moving forward and have meaningful conversations not only on social media, but in our homes, community and businesses.

Kirsten MacDonell & Kayla Kaliszuk

YEG Boss Babes Co-Founders