Ways to support your child’s mental health care

In this article, Vinschool would like to share some ways for parents to care for your child’s mental health.

Mental health is mainly related to the feelings and experiences that each of us has in life. Students can feel sound in mind (cognitive well-being); connected with and close to others (social well-being); happy and excited (emotional well-being); or strong and energetic (physical well-being). In other words, a student’s mental health includes: (1) Cognitive Well-being, (2) Social Well-being, (3) Emotional Well-being, and (4) Physical Well-being.

When students have good mental health, they often maintain a healthy daily schedule and routine, stay concentrated when studying, and have good relationships with friends and family. 

If they have mental problems, you may notice the following signs:

• Social Well-being: they may isolate themselves, avoid communicating with you and interacting with other family members, or have unusual thoughts about others.
• Emotional Well-being: they may be unusually irritable, easily sad, worried about or afraid of something.         
• Physical Well-being: they may suddenly change their eating habits, experience persistent insomnia, have trouble sleeping or consistent nightmares, or do not like to participate in activities that they often do (such as sports).
• Cognitive Well-being: they may have difficulty concentrating when studying and doing homework, obtain poor assessment results, unusually neglect their study, or become forgetful or careless, thus making frequent mistakes.

4 ways to support your child’s mental health:

1. Social health:

• Spend time with your child to make them feel that they are important to you, at the same time strengthen family bonds;
• Communicate with your child regularly to keep a connection with them, so they feel comfortable sharing their feelings and problems;
• When your child talks to you, listen attentively and appreciate what they are sharing, make them feel recognised, acknowledged and respected.

2. Emotional health:

• Show unconditional love for your child, make them feel that no matter what happens, you are always there for them and love them;
• Praise their strengths and direct them to focus on these strengths to be more confident in themselves. This will help them cope with worries, fears and other negative emotions;
• Teach your child how to deal with unexpected situations, solve problems, and manage stress.

3. Physical health

• Help your child form healthy living habits (such as sleeping on time, eating regularly, ensuring personal hygiene);
• Do exercises or play sports with your child;
• Talk to your child about unsafe situations or safety risks, how to stay safe, and how to seek help.

4. Cognitive health:

• Help your child draw up a study plan and arrange a suitable study space;
• Encourage your child to explore their academic areas of interest, talk to them and allow them to talk about these areas;
• Ask questions that stimulate your child’s passion for exploring and creativity in subject areas.

Vinschool always considers students’ mental health care one of the top priorities. This year, the school has taken a variety of measures to improve the quality and effectiveness of students’ mental health care such as:

• 100% of Vinschool teachers and staff have been trained and guided in identifying mental problems and supporting students with such problems.
• The Student Well-being Support System (SWB) has been put into operation on the LMS and Vinschool One platforms, helping the school to support parents in updating information, monitoring, guiding and providing system-wide student mental well-being support.
• The BEWELL project initiated by Vinschool students is implemented under 3 programs throughout the school year: Wellbeing Workshops (workshops on mental health care for students); My Happiness (Students, parents, teachers and staff sharing happy stories with Vinschool through photos, videos or articles); Wellbeing Classroom (Project on creating happy classrooms).

For further information about Vinschool’s mental health care programs or for advice on mental problems and ways to help your child, please contact Vinschool Psychologist’s Office (SPO) at 024 3975 3333 (ext: 8653, 8654).