Children and young people are being encouraged to explore different ways of expressing themselves for this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week (1-7 February).

Run by children’s mental health charity Place2Be, Children’s Mental Health Week highlights the importance of looking after your wellbeing from an early age. This year’s theme is all about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography, and film, and doing activities that make you feel good. 

But it is important to remember that expressing yourself is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about finding a way to show who you are and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself. 

Place2Be, which supplies counselling and mental health support and training in schools, believes that children should not have to face mental health problems alone, and highlights: 

• Around three children in every primary school class have experienced a mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement.  

• 1 in 6 children and young people have a diagnosable mental health condition. 

• 50% of people with lifelong mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14.