PeerGalaxy Original Calendar
Welcome to PeerGalaxy Calendar featuring over 99,000+ monthly offerings of FREE telephone- and online-accessible peer support, recovery support + wellness activities!
Over 30+ warmlines plus webinars, workshops, job postings, special events, consumer input opportunities and more.
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How Events are Sorted:
First, at the top of the list: SAMHSA Disaster Helpline and similar links.
Next in the list: Bundled “All Day” Events for organizations with events happening at multiple times throughout the day and/or in many formats or locations; these are bundled into a single listing to prevent endless scrolling. Usually these offer a lookup by zip code or other criteria.
Lastly, Time-Specific Events listed by start time from 12:01am early morning to 11:59pm late night. Warmlines and places east of Oregon’s time zone tend to start earlier (e.g. 4am in Oregon is 7am in New York).
Resources for Families and Children Facing Tragic Events
Racial Stress – Racism – Hate Crimes
Helpful Resources to Address the Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Many thanks to Michelle Zabel, MSS, Assistant Dean, and Director, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, for compiling this list of resources in response to the horrific mass shooting in Texas earlier this week.
Helping Young People Cope With Mental Health Challenges
Vox Media’s NowThis is linking arms with Ken Burns and PBS to share an upcoming documentary titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” Scenes from the forthcoming film will be shared across NowThis social platforms throughout Mental Health Awareness Month in May. NowThis will host a live TikTok conversation about the topic, as well. The goal, Burns said, is “to get this material out to young people around the country.” The film itself will debut at the end of June on PBS.
Uplift by Youth Era: Teaching Youth Peer Support Skills
More than 500 youth signed up for the most recent Uplift event! Studied by the University of Oxford and co-designed with young adults, Uplift by Youth Era is the future of peer support. Empower a young person in your life to be who they need, and apply to join the next Uplift training in June!
Randolph “Randy” Muck September 14, 1955 to April 21, 2021 in Memoriam
On the first anniversary of his death, several of us who knew and worked with Randy write this tribute to remember and honor his impact on so many people. Randy provided much-needed leadership from within the federal government to develop and disseminate evidence-based substance use treatments designed for adolescents and their families. He was successful because he had a rare ability to connect with all the groups important to improving adolescent treatment: provider organizations, schools, juvenile justice, counselors, federal agency decision-makers, researchers, private foundations, and most importantly—adolescents and their families. He saw how these groups could align their different interests and collaborate. This, in turn, helped youth, families, and systems of care in ways that continue to have an impact.
HHS Awards Nearly $25 Million to Expand Access to School-Based Health Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recently announced nearly $25 million will be made available to improve and strengthen access to school-based health services in communities across the country. Awards will support local partnerships between schools and health centers to provide children and youth with the comprehensive physical and mental health care they need.
Investing in Prevention Makes Good Financial Sense
Primary prevention—including screening and intervention before negative health outcomes occur—is relatively inexpensive. The higher-risk behaviors it is designed to reduce are so costly to the healthcare system that it is staggeringly wasteful not to make sure that screening and treatment referrals are readily implemented and faithfully reimbursed by insurers and that interventions are convenient for parents and their children.
PAX Good Behavior Game
Speaking of prevention…
The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based universal preventive intervention applied by teachers in the classroom. This evidence-based practice consists of research-based strategies with origins in behavioral science, neuroscience, and cultural wisdom that operate together to improve children’s self-regulation. Teachers implement these strategies as part of their daily routines in carrying out tasks such as getting students’ attention, selecting students for tasks, transitioning from one task to the next, working as part of a team, limiting problematic behavior, and reinforcing pro-social behavior.
HHS Launches New Maternal Mental Health Hotline
The Maternal Mental Health Hotline is a new, confidential, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. Those who contact the hotline can receive a range of support, including brief interventions from trained culturally and trauma-informed counselors and referrals to both community-based and telehealth providers as needed. Callers also will receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and other community resources.
Six Things You Need To Know About Music and Health
A growing body of research suggests that listening to or performing music affects the brain in ways that may help promote health and manage disease symptoms. More justification for the plethora of music videos posted in Friday Update!
Know Your Rights: Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits
This brochure gives an overview of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. It lists some common limits placed on mental health and substance use disorder benefits and services.
Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech
Aaahhhh!!! Less than 20 days!!! Well? Have you registered for the 2022 Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech summit on June 8-9th yet? Can’t make it? Wondering if you can access all of the sessions with our hundreds of speakers after June 8-9th? YES, but ONLY if you register in advance. So, you should probably get on that.
Building a More Equitable Juvenile Justice System for Everyone
Racial inequities regarding the policing of children, and the subsequent disparities in their treatment within the juvenile justice system, have been problems in this country for far too long. It is encouraging that many states and counties are not only recognizing these issues but are taking action. The CSG Justice Center is committed to providing research-driven, data-informed solutions to our partners to continue building safer and stronger communities for everyone, especially our youth.
Disruptions to School and Home Life Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021
Young people have experienced disruptions to school and home life since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. From January to June 2021, CDC conducted the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public- and private-school students in grades 9–12. ABES data were used to estimate the prevalence of disruptions and adverse experiences during the pandemic, including parental and personal job loss, homelessness, hunger, emotional or physical abuse by a parent or other adult at home, receipt of telemedicine, and difficulty completing schoolwork. Prevalence estimates are presented for all students by sex, race and ethnicity, grade, sexual identity, and difficulty completing schoolwork.
CDC Survey Finds the Pandemic Had a Big Impact on Teens’ Mental Health
According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than four in 10 teens report feeling “persistently sad or hopeless” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls were twice as likely to experience mental health troubles compared to boys. And LGBTQ students were hit the hardest. The CDC’s findings were gathered from online surveys from a sample of 7,700 US students during the first six months of 2021.
New Initiative to Define Policy Recommendations for Embedding Equity into 988
The Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity & Beacon Health Options are joining forces to create and develop an equitable crisis response for the future of behavioral health service delivery ahead of the July 2022 launch of 988.
State Policymakers Can Support Equitable School-based Telemental Health Services
This brief presents five ways state policymakers can support equitable school-based telemental health services, with recommendations based on relevant policy context, existing research, and—in some cases—feedback from interviews with five TMH providers who testified to on-the-ground experience with these interventions.
- SAMHSA Disaster/Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
- SAMHSA Incidents of Mass Violence
- SAMHSA: Tips for Talking with and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event
- CDC Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach
- CDC Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
- NCSMH Supporting Students, Staff, Families & Communities Impacted by Violence
- NIMH Helping Children & Adolescents Cope with Traumatic Events
- Talking to Children About Terrorist Attacks & School & Community Shootings in the News
- CDC Caring for Children in a Disaster: Tools & Resources
- NCTSN School Shooting Resources
- Sesame Street in Communities: Community & Gun Violence
- AAP Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events
- AAP Talking with Children About Disasters
- CDC Helping Children Cope During & After a Disaster
Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
In times of community or world-wide crisis, it’s easy to assume that young children don’t know what’s going on. But one thing’s for sure — children are very sensitive to how their parents feel. They’re keenly aware of the expressions on their parents’ faces and the tone of their voices. Children can sense when their parents are really worried, whether they’re watching the news or talking about it with others. No matter what children know about a “crisis,” it’s especially scary for children to realize that their parents are scared.
Some Scary, Confusing Images
The way that news is presented on television can be quite confusing for a young child. The same video segment may be shown over and over again through the day, as if each showing was a different event. Someone who has died turns up alive and then dies again and again. Children often become very anxious since they don’t understand much about videotape replays, closeups, and camera angles. Any televised danger seems close to home to them because the tragic scenes are taking place on the TV set in their own living room. Children can’t tell the difference between what’s close and what’s far away, what’s real and what’s pretend, or what’s new and what’s re-run.
The younger the children are, the more likely they are to be interested in scenes of close-up faces, particularly if the people are expressing some strong feelings. When there’s tragic news, the images on TV are most often much too graphic and disturbing for young children.
“Who will take care of me?”
In times of crisis, children want to know, “Who will take care of me?” They’re dependent on adults for their survival and security. They’re naturally self-centered. They need to hear very clearly that their parents are doing all they can to take care of them and to keep them safe. They also need to hear that people in the government and other grown-ups they don’t even know are working hard to keep them safe, too.
Helping Children Feel More Secure
Play is one of the important ways young children have of dealing with their concerns. Of course, playing about violent news can be scary and sometimes unsafe, so adults need to be nearby to help redirect that kind of play into nurturing themes, such as a hospital for the wounded or a pretend meal for emergency workers.
When children are scared and anxious, they might become more dependent, clingy, and afraid to go to bed at night. Whining, aggressive behavior, or toilet “accidents” may be their way of asking for more comfort from the important adults in their lives. Little by little, as the adults around them become more confident, hopeful and secure, our children probably will, too.
Turn Off the TV
When there’s something tragic in the news, many parents get concerned about what and how to tell their children. It’s even harder than usual if we’re struggling with our own powerful feelings about what has happened. Adults are sometimes surprised that their own reactions to a televised crisis are so strong, but great loss and devastation in the news often reawaken our own earlier losses and fears – even some we think we might have “forgotten”
It’s easy to allow ourselves to get drawn into watching televised news of a crisis for hours and hours; however, exposing ourselves to so many tragedies can make us feel hopeless, insecure, and even depressed. We help our children and ourselves if we’re able to limit our own television viewing. Our children need us to spend time with them – away from the frightening images on the screen.
Talking and Listening
Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to give our children all the reasons for such things as war, terrorists, abuse, murders, major fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. If they ask questions, our best answer may be to ask them, “What do you think happened?” If the answer is “I don’t know,” then the simplest reply might be something like, “I’m sad about the news, and I’m worried. But I love you, and I’m here to care for you.”
If we don’t let children know it’s okay to feel sad and scared, they may think something is wrong with them when they do feel that way. They certainly don’t need to hear all the details of what’s making us sad or scared, but if we can help them accept their own feelings as natural and normal, their feelings will be much more manageable for them.
Angry feelings are part of being human, especially when we feel powerless. One of the most important messages we can give our children is, “It’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt ourselves or others.” Besides giving children the right to their anger, we can help them find constructive things to do with their feelings. This way, we’ll be giving them useful tools that will serve them all their life, and help them to become the worlds’ future peacemakers — the world’s future “helpers.”
Helpful Hints
- Do your best to keep the television off, or at least limit how much your child sees of any news event.
- Try to keep yourself calm. Your presence can help your child feel more secure.
- Give your child extra comfort and physical affection, like hugs or snuggling up together with a favorite book. Physical comfort goes a long way towards providing inner security. That closeness can nourish you, too.
- Try to keep regular routines as normal as possible. Children and adults count on their familiar pattern of everyday life.
- Plan something that you and your child enjoy doing together, like taking a walk, going on a picnic, having some quiet time, or doing something silly. It can help to know there are simple things in life that can help us feel better, in good times and in bad.
- Even if children don’t mention what they’ve seen or heard in the news, it can help to ask what they think has happened. If parents don’t bring up the subject, children can be left with their misinterpretations. You may be really surprised at how much your child has heard from others.
- Focus attention on the helpers, like the police, firemen, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and volunteers. It’s reassuring to know there are many caring people who are doing all they can to help others in this world.
- Let your child know if you’re making a donation, going to a town meeting, writing a letter or e-mail of support, or taking some other action. It can help children to know that adults take many different active roles and that we don’t give in to helplessness in times of worldwide crisis.
What do we tell our children?
How do we reassure them of their own safety?
At The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, we’ve provided grief support groups for children, teens, young adults and their parents or adult caregivers since 1982.
Based on our experience, here are some things for adults to keep in mind as you struggle with how to talk with children following tragic events, such as natural disasters, plane crashes, or school shootings.
1. Don’t project your fears onto your children. They take their cues from the adults around them.
You can’t hear the news about children being murdered or communities devastated by natural disasters without thinking about how you’d feel if it happened to your family, friends, or hometown. The outpouring of care and empathy for the families who lost loved ones will be powerful, and…we all know it could have been our friends, our child, our family and community members who died or were injured.
Identifying with the senselessness and randomness makes us all feel more vulnerable. But we should remember that children don’t always see things the same way that adults do, and it won’t be helpful to them for us to fall apart. They need to see that we care, that we feel terrible about this tragedy, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. They will take their cues from our behavior.
It’s okay to show emotion. We can model for children that feeling sad, scared, and upset is normal after tragedies. But we don’t want to overwhelm them with our emotions, or put them in the position of having to ‘parent,’ or take care of, the adults around them. Make sure you also model taking care of yourself, by sharing with trusted and supportive adult friends, eating (and drinking) healthfully.
2. Try to limit their access to the recurring news and exposure to the tragedy over and over.
Over-exposure to the graphic and emotional news can be overwhelming for children and can cause unnecessary anxiety and fear. Some children who repeatedly watched the footage of planes crashing into the towers on 9/11 thought it was happening again and again. Some children (and some adults) may have difficulty getting graphic scenes and images out of their minds. Too much exposure can fuel their fear, so don’t let them sit and watch the news over and over. Better yet, set the example of not doing so yourself as well.
3. Understand that you can’t completely shield them from what happened.
It would be next to impossible to hide these events from children, as much as we wish we could. You might be able to shield your own child in your home, for example, by not turning on (or owning) a television, but you can’t protect your children from hearing about it from other kids. The fact is, they will hear about it, so although they don’t “need” to know about it, pretending we can shield them is magical thinking.
That said, you don’t need to give them more information than they can handle, or more than they’re asking for. A simple, “Did they talk about what happened in _____ today at school?” would be a good starter. They need to know that you’re not trying to hide the truth from them, that you’re open to talking about it, but that you’re also not forcing them to do so.
4. Model truth-telling and build trust with your children by letting them hear things, even hard things, from you directly.
Eight days after the 9/11 attacks, I was meeting in small groups with pre-school workers in New York City, talking about how to respond to the young children in their care about the events. A man asked to speak to me privately after one of the trainings, and asked for my advice around his 7-year-old daughter. For the last week, since September 12th, she had been having stomach aches and difficulty sleeping. He said it was not tied to the events of 9/11 because, “We don’t have a television.” As his story unfolded it was evident that he did not want to have to explain to his child why people would do such horrible things, a normal dilemma that we face as parents and adults. This child was experiencing physical reactions, as it turned out, not primarily because of her reaction to the events of 9/11, but because she was unable to share her fears and concerns and questions in her own home, faced with her parents’ denial.
Here are some principles to keep in mind as you talk with children:
1. There is no one typical reaction one can or should expect from children.
Their responses will vary all over the ‘emotional’ map, from seeming disinterest to nightmares, eating issues, and anxiety. How any specific child will respond will depend on their age, previous experience with death and loss, and their personality style. Fearful children will tend to worry; quiet children may keep their feelings to themselves; those who want to appear unfazed may exhibit a sense of bravado or lack of caring. Of course, children directly affected – those who had a family member die; those who witnessed the tragedy; those who had friends die – will tend to have longer-term reactions and needs. Watch for changes in behavior, or concerning trends. While it would be normal to have heightened anxiety and sleeplessness, any concerning behavior or troubling symptoms should be taken seriously, and if warranted, professional help sought.
2. Many children will have an increased sense of fear about their safety.
Understandably. So will many adults. After a shooting at an Oregon mall in December 2012, the news outlets were filled with people who said they’d never take their children there again. Others said they’d return as soon as it opened in order to support the stores and employees who had experienced the traumatic events, and whose livelihoods were going to suffer as a result of the several day closure. Some runners in the Boston Marathon vowed to return; others said they would never do so again.
While we can’t guarantee to our children that nothing bad will ever happen to them, we can provide assurance that these events are relatively rare, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. Children may have many questions about the events, particularly about natural disasters. Answer their questions with language that fits their developmental stage. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question. If it’s a question that might have an answer, offer to look up more information. You can also ask children what they think the answer is as they often have thoughts and ideas they want to share with you. In the case of natural disasters, if your child is fearful of something like that happening in your community, talk with them about the safety plan that you have in place for your family and home. You can also look into what community safety measures are in place and whatever elements are relevant with your children. Many children will be reassured knowing that there are specific, tangible things they and your family can do if something occurs. Some examples include, picking a meeting place, keeping flashlights in every bedroom, talking about where you will keep emergency water and food.
3. Children want, need, and deserve the truth.
In over 30 years of providing grief support to thousands of children and teens at The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, we have never heard a child say, “I’m glad I was lied to.” Many, however, struggle with anger and lack of trust toward parents or other adults who lied to them. When we don’t tell the truth, they learn that we cannot be trusted. As difficult as it can be at times, and as horrendous as the truth may be, children want, need, and deserve the truth. Being able to talk openly and honestly with your children about tragic events and other losses, creates a foundation of trust, enabling them to come to you in the future with their questions, fears, and concerns.
How race-related stress affects you and your relationship with your child
What effect does racism have on your health and well-being?
Not only does racism impact you as a parent, it can also impact how you interact with your children. Experiences of racism build on each other and can chip away at your emotional, physical and spiritual resources as a parent, contributing to race-related stress. Race-related stress can make it hard to have the space needed to take care of yourself as a parent, which reduces the emotional space you need to adequately take care of your children.
Physical Effects
Physical Effects can include increased hypertension, illness and risky behaviors such as substance use.
Emotional Effects
Emotional effects can include depression, anxiety, anger, irritability and aggression.
Spiritual Effects
Spiritual effects can include a decreased sense of purpose, lack of connection with the larger community, isolation from larger social groups and reduced involvement in communal activities that you enjoy.
Potential reactions to racial stress or trauma
Insecure Feelings
Feelings of shame and lack of confidence due to feeling that a situation cannot be changed.
Lack of Trust
Feeling detached or a lack of trust for others due to experiencing multiple losses or letdowns. This can make it very difficult to seek out help and to identify potential safe sources of support.
Triggers
Reminders of the event, such as particular people or situations, can also trigger strong emotional or physical responses (e.g., crying or rapid heartbeat).
Difficulty Controlling Emotions
Difficulty controlling emotional responses (going from “zero to one hundred”) can occur as the body helps you adapt to potentially unsafe situations, making you feel constantly on “alert.”
The body’s response to the experience of racism can make accessing resources to cope with the situation difficult. Race-related stress is unique in that it threatens psychological resources that are needed to cope and fulfill basic needs such as financial support, housing, access to jobs, etc.
When your body is in stress mode, it is geared up to help you and your child survive, which sometimes leads to impulsive decisions. If you live in a chronic state of stress related to racism, you can start to engage in survival coping. Survival coping can help you to deal with very hard or potentially life-threatening situations. However, if you continue to exist in this mode long-term, it can make it difficult to enjoy being in the moment with your child and can reduce your ability to feel safe and in control.
What impact can racial stress have on your parenting?
Experiencing race-related stress can also impact the quality of parenting relationships in the following ways:
Impostor syndrome
When you are exposed to racism repeatedly, you often start doubting yourself and can feel like you are an imposter in dominant culture settings or in settings where you feel as though you do not belong. Your inner thoughts might sound something like: “Am I being judged?” “Am I worthy?” “I got lucky.” “I only got this because I am Black.”
Being overly alert (hypervigilance)
Experiencing racial stress can make you more aware of potential dangers and negative experiences that can occur. This, in turn, can make the experience of parenting even more stressful. When you interact with your children, you can sometimes be reminded of negative race-related experiences that you had when you were a child. This reminder can amp up emotional responses, or hyperarousal, making it hard for you to “keep your cool” and be open to flexible problem solving.
“Helicopter parenting” (monitoring in fear)
These experiences of racism and unwarranted blame or lack of acceptance can make you want to protect your children so much, that you don’t allow them to explore in the way that they need to. You may shelter them from failures, which everyone needs to experience in order to learn how to manage everyday life. You may tend to be overly cautious or suspicious. Examples can include not allowing your children to have sleepovers or go to the park, even with your supervision.
Difficulty regulating emotions
- When your past influences your emotional state, it can affect your emotional responses to both big and minor stressors with children, such as when they misbehave. This, in turn, can lead to being overprotective or overuse of physical discipline, as a means of survival.
- For children, having parents who can keep perspective (stay cool) when children are upset, or misbehaving is very important. Likewise, it is important to stay calm when disciplining a child, otherwise discipline may go overboard. Both of these things can be hard if you are having difficulty controlling your emotions.
Avoidance
- Avoiding situations that are related to racism can be a needed strategy to survive; such as instances that may involve violence or threat to yourself or your family. Sometimes you may avoid reminders of past experiences due to the pain or discomfort they cause.
- If you find yourself avoiding strong feelings or situations with your child that bring up painful memories, it may make it hard to show affection and support for your child. It may even make it difficult to know how to provide emotional support for your child during times of stress. For instance, if your child brings up their own experience of oppression or an event in their life reminds you of something from your own childhood.
Mistrusting others
- Racism can lead to distrust or mistrust of other communities. Internalized racism is when you begin to accept negative messages about your own abilities and inherent worth by the dominant group in society.
- When you use society’s norms to judge yourself, you can feel depressed, unworthy and just not good enough. You are taught in many ways to take these feelings and paint them onto another group.
- Intra and interracial violence, contention among disenfranchised communities or color, and the way the media conveys information about people of color, contribute to this.
- This kind of coping can make you more vulnerable to racism, because on some level you may believe in racial hierarchy and difference when you belittle other groups. And when you show your children that it is right to discriminate against certain other groups, you make them more vulnerable to discrimination that they face.
Minimizing racism
- Racism is overwhelming, as is the history of violence. You are sometimes taught that accepting this and minimizing racism is the only thing you can do. But when you ignore racism, and accept powerlessness, you encourage your kids to internalize racism. This can lead to increased levels of depression, anxiety and externalizing behaviors (e.g., engaging in risky behaviors, such as alcohol or substance use).
- When you believe that you should be able to handle and manage it all without a break or without asking for help, you are at increased risk for health problems and can miss important cues about your well-being and safety.
Self-blame
Experiencing chronically unfair and dangerous discriminatory practices due to race can lead to feelings of low worth. For parents, this can also lead to a questioning of your parenting choices and abilities.
Unbalanced Racial and Ethnic Socialization (RES)
Unbalanced messaging or communication about race and ethnicity occurs when you only promote messages of mistrust, preparation for bias, or only give racial pride messages to your children.
Strategies to deal with racial stress and practice self-care.
So, what can you do to mitigate racial stress?
As parents, it is important to develop positive identities and share your cultural identities with your children. Positive cultural identity and advocacy are protective factors against racism, which can help to reduce and prevent racial stress.
There are many other ways to cope with stress and everyone has different preferences. Reducing stress can also allow you to model healthy coping strategies for your child. Here are some suggestions you can try.
- Build or access a support network
- Incorporate traditions at home
- Get some exercise
- Deep breathing
- Journal
- Limit your media intake
- Counseling/therapy
- Spirituality
- Podcast
You are not the only person dealing with race-related stress and connecting with other people with similar experiences and feelings can help you to successfully navigate racism.
- Talk with family and trusted friends specifically about racialized events that have occurred and how to handle them
- Start or join a group with others who may have had similar experiences and similar interests, like a book club that reads books by Black authors, or spend time with other African American parents who have the same concerns you do about how your children are treated at the school.
- Seek out activities that you can do with your friends or family (e.g., exercising, cooking, watching a family show or movie together, etc.)
Legislation
Much of the debate today is around gun control. Below are links to two bills currently pending in Congress.
HR 1446 Enhanced Background Check Act of 2021
HR 8 Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Resource Lists to Support Mental Health and Coping with the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
LISTS COURTESY OF THE SUICIDE PREVENTION RESCOURCE CENTER
GENERAL AUDIANCE
- NEWLY ADDED! Coping-19 – This website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ad Council provides resources for people dealing with anxiety, depression, financial uncertainty, grief, isolation, prejudice, or sleeplessness. It also provides resources on healthy living topics such as exercise, nutrition, and meditation, family activities, and medical guidance.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Stress and Coping – This web page contains basic guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on managing mental health stressors during COVID-19. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health: Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation during an Infectious Disease Outbreak – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides information on typical reactions to social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, and ways to take care of oneself. The sheet also provides a list of hotlines and other resources for obtaining help.
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Considerations during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This information sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO) contains suggestions for coping with COVID-19 for the general population and specific groups including health care workers, caretakers of children and older adults, and people living in isolation.
- Taking Care of Your Mental Health in the Face of Uncertainty – This blog post from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) provides five suggestions for coping with the uncertainty due to COVID-19. Available in Spanish.
- Helpful Thinking during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing negative thoughts and feelings you may be having and helpful thoughts you can try instead to feel more positive. The categories included are concerns about safety, feeling unable to cope, helplessness, guilt, and anger. Available in Spanish.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Grief and Loss – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains information on coping with grief and loss, including loss of a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic, loss due to changes in daily routines and ways of life, and helping children cope with grief. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Coronavirus Anxiety: Helpful Expert Tips and Resources– This web page, updated daily by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), contains links to a wide variety of resources for coping with general anxiety and some specific anxiety disorders during COVID-19, including articles, information sheets, blog posts, and videos.
- Coping with Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks– This web page from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides bulleted lists of behavioral, physical, emotional, and mental responses that are common signs of stress and anxiety during infectious disease pandemics like COVID-19. It also includes ways to relieve the stress.
- Tips for Coping with Coronavirus Stress – This sheet from PsychAlive provides suggestions for self-care to help cope with stress during COVID-19, including mindfulness meditation; a breathing exercise; practicing self-compassion, optimism, and gratitude; and connecting with other people and with nature.
- How to Support a Loved One Going through a Tough Time during COVID-19 – This web page from Mental Health First Aid provides tips for reaching out to someone who may need emotional support.
- Tips for Supporting Others during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing simple ways to talk with others that show support. It includes examples of statements and questions that can be adapted for the specific person and situation. Available in Spanish.
- Managing Family Conflict While Home during COVID-19: Intimate Partners – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides strategies that may help partners manage conflict during periods of confinement at home.
- Coronavirus: Building Mental Health Resilience – This blog post from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) suggests ways to build resilience, which means learning healthy ways to adapt and cope with adversity and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses growing emotionally beyond simply coping.
- Building Resiliency to Isolation & Loneliness: How to Increase Our Resiliency during the COVID-19 Crisis (Archived Webinar)– This webinar from Mental Health America enables participants to learn the impact of crisis situations, loneliness, and isolation; understand what resiliency is and where it comes from; and learn practical and achievable ways to increase one’s resiliency.
- Managing Our Fears and Stress: Strategies to Cultivate Emotional Agility (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Susan David, PhD, discusses how to cultivate agility in coping with our emotions within ourselves and organizations in the context of the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
- Responding to COVID-19: Provider Well-Being – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address the well-being of mental health providers. It includes webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- Responding to COVID-19: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Child Abuse – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that can help mental health providers address IPV and child abuse with the clients they serve. It includes webinars and print materials.
- Treating Suicidal Patients during COVID-19: Best Practices and Telehealth (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), experts discuss three best practices for treating people at risk of suicide that can be delivered effectively via telehealth: safety plans, treatment that directly targets suicidal thoughts, and DBT-based self-help skills. Also available is a series of three brief videos made from this webinar.
- Safe Suicide Care During a Pandemic – This web page from the Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) contains descriptions of, and links to, resources for health care leaders and mental health professionals on providing safe suicide care.
- Trauma Informed Clinical Care during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar Series) – This series of four webinars for mental health clinicians from the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide includes lessons learned from previous mass trauma events translated into practical suggestions for the current pandemic. The webinars are:
- Part 1: Unpacking the Impact of COVID-19 Trauma
- Part 2: Supporting People through Grief and Trauma
- Part 3: Understanding Suicide Risk during COVID-19
- Part 4: Surviving and Thriving—Finding Your Own Path to Wisdom and Healing
- For Mental Health Providers: Working with Patients Affected by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on the challenges patients may face during COVID-19, how to talk with patients in the context of COVID-19, ways to modify treatment, and a framework to help patients manage their reactions related to COVID-19.
- Tools for Behavioral Health Professionals During a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for behavioral health professionals on maintaining wellness, recognizing signs of burnout, supporting staff, and using telehealth.
- Supportive Practices for Mental Health Professionals During Pandemic-Related Social Distancing – This sheet from the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) contains information on challenges mental health professionals face with social distancing, and suggestions for how to support oneself and work with supervisees.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Crisis Services (Part 2): Culturally Responsive Factors in COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – In the context of COVID-19, this webinar from the Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) discusses how cultural factors impact the experience of a crisis, cultural idioms of distress, the benefits and challenges of telehealth, and the Cultural Formulation Interview techniques to effectively use in telehealth.
- Taking Care of Patients During the Coronavirus Outbreak: A Guide for Psychiatrists – This sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides information on some common psychological and behavioral responses to expect and suggestions for how to work with patients.
- Telehealth Tips: Managing Suicidal Clients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This information sheet from the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute provides tips for evaluating and treating people who are suicidal using telehealth. It also includes steps and a template for developing a safety plan.
- Notification of Enforcement Discretion on Telehealth Remote Communications during COVID-19 Nationwide Public Health Emergency – This web page from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides information on what is now allowed for the use of telehealth in relation to the regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Telepsychiatry in the Era of COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar by SMI Adviser provides an overview of how to use telemental health and video visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes information on the legal, clinical, cultural, and practical aspects of using technology to deliver care. It covers topics such as which telemental health platform to use, licensure, consent, online prescribing, and billing.
- COVID-19 Tips: Building Rapport with Youth via Telehealth – This article by Van Dyk, et al. at the UCLA Pediatric Psychology Consultation Liaison Service provides tips on how to introduce telehealth to children and adolescents, build rapport with them, and keep them engaged.
HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS
- Emergency Responders: Tips for Taking Care of Yourself – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides signs of burnout and secondary traumatic stress as well as self-care techniques and tips for setting up a buddy system with another emergency responder for mutual support.
- Strategies to Support the Health and Well-Being of Clinicians During the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) includes strategies health care leaders and managers can use to support their clinical staff and self-care strategies for clinicians.
- Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on possible causes of stress for health care workers during COVID-19, ways to manage stress through preparedness, and ways to cope with stress during the pandemic and its aftermath.
- Tips for Healthcare Professionals: Coping with Stress and Compassion Fatigue – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on stress and signs of distress and compassion fatigue after a disaster. It describes strategies to cope and enhance resilience, including instructions for relaxation exercises, and lists resources for more information and support.
- Tips for Disaster Responders: Preventing and Managing Stress – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on preparing for a disaster and coping during and after it. Suggestions for planning with loved ones are included.
- First Responders First: Sustaining Yourself During the Coronavirus Crisis – This tip sheet from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Thrive Global provides small steps that first responders can take throughout their work day as well as outside of work to manage stress and maintain well-being.
- Caring for Yourself & Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, discusses ways that health care workers can manage stress—theirs and others’—during COVID-19. It is accompanied by handouts for health and mental health care providers on managing stress and on using the seven steps of Stress First Aid for self-care and peer support.
- Leading with Compassion: Supporting Healthcare Workers in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, of the UVA School of Nursing discuss what health care leaders can do to support their teams during the COVID-19 crisis. It is accompanied by four handouts for health care leaders.
- Caring with Compassion: Supporting Patients and Families in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, discuss strategies health care professionals can use to address the five essential human needs that support recovery from adversity and stress. They also explain how to use the Stress First Aid framework to assess for stress injury, discuss patient needs, and make referrals to other supports.
- Supporting a Family Member Who Is a Health Care Worker – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of a family member who is a health care worker. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
- Supporting the Children and Teens of Health Care Workers – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of children and teens of health care workers. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
COMMUNITY LEADERS
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Reducing Stigma – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides basic information about stigma related to COVID-19 and ways that public health officials and other community leaders can reduce it.
- Social Stigma Associated with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – This information sheet from several organizations including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) explains what social stigma is, why it is occurring so much with COVID-19, its impact, and how to address it. The sheet suggests preferred language and messages to use when talking about COVID-19 and provides examples of actions that can counter stigmatizing attitudes.
- For Providers and Community Leaders: Helping People Manage Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This web page from the National Center for PTSD offers five key principles for community leaders, health care providers, and others addressing the public’s psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as steps they can take to help.
- Psychological Effects of Quarantine During the Coronavirus Outbreak: What Public Health Leaders Need to Know – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes some of the factors relevant to senior public health officials, such as local, state, and tribal health authorities, in addressing the psychological effects related to quarantine.
- Mental Health and Behavioral Guidelines for Preparedness and Response to Coronavirus and other Emerging Infectious Outbreaks – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes steps that public health officials and other community leaders can take to address the coronavirus pandemic during the phases of preparedness, early pandemic response, later response and recovery, and mental health intervention planning.
- How Leaders Can Maximize Trust and Minimize Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This web page from the American Psychological Association (APA) provides suggestions for how leaders, including government officials, business managers, educators, and parents, can maximize their ability to communicate well during COVID-19.
- The Critical Role of Prevention During and Post Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Great Lakes PTTC is a starting point for a regional dialogue as organizations start preparing for recovery from the many effects of COVID-19 including on substance misuse, mental health, suicide, and domestic violence, and the important role that prevention professionals will play in the response.
AMERICAN INDIANS AND ALASKA NATIVES
- NEWLY ADDED! Staying Safe and Mentally Well During COVID-19 – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides suggestions for how to relieve stress that are tailored for American Indian and Alaska Native people.
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19 and Anxiety (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on anxiety, how feelings of anxiety may be heightened during the pandemic, resources and coping mechanisms that may help, and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- NEWLY ADDED! Suicidality and COVID-19: How to Help (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on suicide in Indian Country; intervention and prevention; what is unique about COVID-19 that may contribute to suicide risk; resources and suggestions that may help; and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- Physically Distant but Socially Close: Indigenous Resilience and COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute suggests adaptations of some common native cultural practices so that they can be safe and fulfilling. These include ways of greetings each other, enjoying food and community, dancing, and engaging in ceremony.
- Managing Stress during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on the signs of stress, how to manage stress, and support for people at risk of violence in the home.
- A Historical Trauma-informed Approach to COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute shares ways that urban Indian organizations can support the people they serve, their staff, and their communities experiencing both current and historical trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Recommendations for Tribal Ceremonies and Gatherings during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains recommendations to assist in reducing the spread of COVID-19 during tribal ceremonies and practices such as sweat lodges, social gatherings, and seasonal ceremonies. These events are important in protecting the health and well-being of tribal members.
- Elder Mental Health During COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on ways to support American Indian elders during COVID-19. It includes suggestions for managing stress, activities to help maintain well-being, ways to support elders with medical needs, and steps residential care facilities can take to ensure elders’ safety.
- Tips for Health and Wellness for Elders – This information sheet from the National Indian Health Board for Native elders contains health and wellness tips to help cope with COVID-19.
- Stress and Anxiety Management for Community Health Workers during Coronavirus – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on the signs of stress and anxiety and how to cope with them.
- Positive Parenting during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on how parents can reduce their stress and how to help their children cope during COVID-19.
- Talking to Kids about Coronavirus (COVID-19) – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health for parents and other family members provides tips for talking with kids about COVID-19, including how to get the conversation started.
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITES
- NEWLY ADDED! Redefining the Sophomore Slump during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar). This webinar from Kognito is a panel discussion with three higher education leaders who discuss what they are expecting when students return to campus, the types of conversations campus members may need to have with students and the support they can provide as students adjust to a new normal given what they have experienced during COVID-19, including grief, loneliness, uncertainty, and fear.
- Students Struggle but Don’t Seek Colleges’ Help – This article from Inside Higher Ed describes the low use of college counseling services compared to student needs, the possible reasons, and where else students are getting support. Then it provides 12 suggestions for improving college mental health services now and after the pandemic.
- Supporting Vulnerable Campus Populations during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This set of guidelines from the American College Health Association (ACHA) provides information on how to support college and university populations that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and economic downturn. It covers Black, Asian, first generation/low income (FGLI), international, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Native American, undocumented students, and students with disabilities.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for Higher Education Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has suggestions for how higher education professionals can help their students and links to other resources.
- Tips to Stay Mentally Well While Working from Home– This blog post from Active Minds provides a list of tips for staying mentally well and focused while making the transition to studying or working from home.
- Mental Health Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from Active Minds provides a variety of resources for students, parents, and faculty to help support student mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Included are videos, blog posts, and webinars.
- Managing Stress During Distance Learning – How Faculty Can Support Their Students (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Jed Foundation, expert panelists discuss how faculty can support their students during this time of distance learning, including identifying students in distress and addressing the needs of particularly vulnerable student populations.
- Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students During a Pandemic (Archived Webinar Series) – This is a series of two webinars from the Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) and Active Minds:
- Session I: Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students during a Pandemic – This session focuses on the impact the pandemic is having on college students’ mental health and well-being and ways to address their needs.
- Session II: Campus Mental Health: How Do We Come Back to the New Normal? – This session covers what coming back to the “new normal” will look like for college students’ as they return to campus and how campuses can effectively support the return of students in providing a place for recovery and education.
SCHOOLS
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19: Resource Center: Guidance and Supports This part of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website includes links to numerous resources under the categories of “Return to School,” “Crisis & Mental Health,” “Families & Educators,” and “Service Delivery & Special Education.”
- NEWLY ADDED! Behavioral Health Impacts During & After COVID-19: What to Expect and Ways to Prepare for the Return to In-Person Learning This short guide from the Northwest MHTTC provides information on what to expect as students return to school and ways to prepare at the staff, building, and district levels. It can help school and district teams consider a range of strategies and supports for students, families, and staff.
- NEWLY ADDED! Five Ways to Talk with Students Returning After Pandemic Closures This brief guide from Kognito provides information and five specific examples of how educators can have the most helpful one-to-one conversations with students when trying to understand what’s underlying their behavior.
- CASEL Cares Initiative COVID-19 Resources – This webpage from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) contains guidelines for educators, parents, and caregivers with four focus areas, and a large list of resources on social and emotional learning for educators.
- Creating Positive Learning Environments: Recommendations and Resources to Support the Social Emotional Well-being of Students, Staff, and Families – This short report offers guidance compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on how to support the social emotional learning and mental and behavioral health needs of students and staff as they prepare for the return to school.
- COVID19K12Counseling.org – This website from the California Association of School Counselors and Wisconsin School Counselors Association provides information and links to resources for administrators, teachers, school-based mental health service providers, caregivers, and students from pre-K through 12th grade. Topics include school reopening, mental health, college and career, anti-racism and equity, and special populations.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for High School Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist high school professionals in helping their students cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Responding to COVID-19: School Mental Health – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address educator well-being and a list of other COVID-related school mental health resources. Both lists include webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- COVID-19 Resources – This web page from the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) provides many resources on mental health and coping, with sections specifically for school staff and administrators and for students and families. It also has a section on technology to support school mental health, and a webinar for school mental health clinicians on using telemental health to provide services and support to students and families.
- Trauma-Informed School Strategies during COVID-19 – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides specific guidance for educators, school staff, and administrators on the physical and emotional well-being of staff; creating a trauma-informed learning environment; identifying, assessing, and treating traumatic stress; trauma education; partnerships with students and families; cultural responsiveness, emergency management and crisis response; and school discipline.
- Supporting Students Experiencing Trauma During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This blog from the Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia (REL Appalachia) lists common trauma symptoms and provides preventive strategies that can be used virtually to create a safe and predictable environment, build relationships, and help students with self-regulation. It also provides links to other resources to use in supporting students.
- Tools for Educators during a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for educators on self-care, signs of distress, and strategies for working parents and students.
- School Staff Self-Care during COVID-19 – This sheet from the Association of California School Administrators provides information on the importance of self-care for educators and strategies for self-care, including creativity and mindfulness.
- How to Cope with Uncertainty: Safety, Predictability, Control (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations and Riverside Trauma Center provides school personnel with information on how to cope with the uncertainty of COVID-19 using a framework of safety, predictability, and control. It offers tips on how to increase your sense of control in your life and how to help students cope.
- Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention during COVID-19: What School-Based Staff Need to Know (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the School-Based Health Alliance and the National Center for School Mental Health provides information and resources to support school staff as they manage current or emerging suicidal thoughts and behaviors in students during COVID-19. It covers safety planning, identifying and responding to youth who may be at risk, and postvention.
PARENTS AND CARE GIVERS
- EWLY ADDED! COVID-19 Resource Guide for Parents and Guardians – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist parents and guardians in helping themselves and their teenage and young adult children cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Talking with Children: Tips for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers during Infectious Disease Outbreaks – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides caregivers, parents, and teachers with information on reactions children and youth may have during an infectious disease outbreak and how to support them. Some of the information is tailored for different age groups.
- Helping Children Cope Emotionally with the Coronavirus – This web page from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS) provides parents with specific suggestions for helping children cope with COVID-19.
- Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides parents and caregivers with information related to the health and mental health aspects of coping with COVID-19. It includes a list by age groups of some typical reactions and ways to help children cope.
- Countering COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Stigma and Racism: Tips for Parents and Caregivers - This information sheet from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) contains tips for parents and caregivers on addressing stigma and racism related to COVID-19 with children. It also provides suggestions to help children feel safe and deal with stigma they may encounter.
- COVID-19: Five Helpful Responses for Families – This web page from Conscious Discipline provides information on five ways to help children feel safe and connected during COVID-19. Each section includes links to activities, examples, stories, and webinars for children and parents to help incorporate the strategies.
- Supporting Families During COVID-19 – This resource list from the Child Mind Institute includes links to a large number of resources, including ones specifically for children with anxiety disorders, ADHD, autism, and PTSD. There are also links to resources relevant for all children on managing anxiety, discipline and behavior, and dealing with loss.
- How to Avoid Passing Anxiety on to Your Kids – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides information and strategies to help parents deal with their own anxiety and keep from passing it on to their children.
- Supporting Teenagers and Young Adults During the Coronavirus Crisis – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides tips specifically for parenting teenagers and young adults home from college during the pandemic.
- Teachers and Parents: Working Together to Make Distance Learning Work – This web page from Mental Health America briefly describes ways that parents and teachers can work together to increase the success of distance/virtual learning for school-age students.
- Co-Parenting during a Pandemic – This information sheet from Parents Lead.org contains a checklist with items that can help in adjusting co-parenting plans. It also provides information on what to do if one parent thinks the other parent is a risk due to COVID-19
TEENAGERS
- NEWLY ADDED! Mental Health Advocacy Online – This webpage from Active Minds includes a short video of high school students sharing their experiences during COVID-19. It also has links to free self-care resources for teens and young adults and a network where student leaders can chat about promoting mental health during COVID-19.
- How to Maintain Your Social Relationships during Online School (For Kids and Teens) – This web page from Mental Health America contains ideas for teenagers and kids on how to keep up relationships with their friends when school is online.
- What Can I Do When I’m Afraid? – This web page from Mental Health America for teenagers briefly describes what fear is and some ways to deal with it.
- Teen Voices: Coping with the Pandemic – In this short video from MindWise Innovations, teens talk about the challenges they’re experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, how they’re learning to cope, and what they need from adults.
OLDER ADULTS
- Reducing Loneliness and Social Isolation among Older Adults – This sheet by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) provides information on the risk factors for and impact of loneliness and social isolation on older adults, tools to identify loneliness in older adults, and interventions and resources to reduce loneliness and isolation.
- Seven Ways to Cope with Anxiety during the Coronavirus Outbreak – This web page from AARP for older adults briefly describes seven things to do to help cope with anxiety during COVID-19. Also available in Spanish.
- COVID-19: We Must Care for Older Adults’ Mental Health – This web page from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) covers key risk factors that impact mental health and well-being in older adults and how they can be worsened by COVID-19. It also includes steps that everyone can take to support older adults during COVID-19.
- 7 Ways to Boost Your Loved One’s Morale during the Coronavirus Epidemic – This web page from AARP for loved ones of older adults briefly describes seven ways to help keep older adults engaged and decrease their feeling of isolation even when you cannot be with them in person. It includes a section with tips for thanking the staff at a care center. Also available in Spanish.
- Older Adults & Isolation during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from Mental Health America for older adults and people who support them describes challenges faced by many older adults that can be worsened by COVID-19 and ways that peer support specialists can help. It also provides specific suggestions for older adults living in isolation on how they can connect with other people, including online.
- How to Introduce Seniors to Video Chatting to Combat Loneliness – This blog post from Family Matters In-Home Care provides tips for helping older adults get set up using video chatting on whatever platform is easiest for them.
- Encouraging Older Adults to Stay Active and Safe during the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) provides tips for older adults on how to safely stay active and exercise at home. Staying active can help with mental health and coping. Also included is a link to some exercise videos specifically for older adults.
- Feeling Good and Staying Connected: An Activity Guide – This guide from the California Department of Aging contains suggestions for a wide variety of activities that older adults can do safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has some worksheets to help plan activities each week.
HISPANICS/LATINOS
- NEWLY ADDED! Stress Management: The Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Latino Families This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC reviews stressors that have been intensified due to the COVID pandemic. It also identifies stress management tools that can be used for school-aged children and those who provide services to them in school-based settings. Special considerations for Latino youth mental health are also discussed.
- For information sheets in Spanish for a general audience, see the General Audience section above.
- Strategies to Support the LatinX Community – In this presentation by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network and the Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network, four presenters discuss ways substance misuse providers can support Latinos during COVID-19, including those with substance misuse problems.
- Stress Management during Quarantine for Mental Health Providers Serving Latino Clients (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC identifies stressors in the Hispanic and Latino population that can be exacerbated during quarantines for infectious disease outbreaks. It covers tools for stress management tools that mental health providers can use with their Hispanic and Latino clients. Special considerations regarding telemental health and for working with Latino youth are also provided.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Telehealth Services for Latino Populations during a Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC covers the challenges of treating Latino clients during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to assess and provide interventions to meet the needs of Latino individuals using telehealth modalities.
- Therapeutic Interventions for Hispanic and Latino Populations with Trauma Experiences: Considerations during the Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC focuses on the common treatment barriers when working with Hispanics and Latinos who are traumatized. It provides practical strategies for overcoming these barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies for trauma processing, and a concrete model for rapid crisis de-escalation.
- COVID-19 and the Impact on Intimate Partner Violence for Latinos (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including shelter in place practices and isolation, on Latino/Hispanic individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). It also covers cultural resilience and coping strategies relevant to Latino families, and ways to reduce stress and IPV.
LGBTQ
- How LGBTQ Youth Can Cope with Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19 – This blog post from The Trevor Project provides information for LGBTQ youth on what they may be experiencing and feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to manage the intense emotions that may occur.
- 9 Strategies for Quarantining in a Non-LGBTQ+ Affirming Environment – This article from the LGBTQ+ community platform, them., provides suggestions for LGBTQ+ youth on how to live in isolation with people who may not accept one’s LGBTQ identity. Therapists and crisis management experts from The Trevor Project helped compile the information.
- Queer Lives Worth Living (Archived Open Conversation) – This conversation with two staff from The Trevor Project and the president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is directed toward providers serving LGBTQ youth. The focus is how to address the needs of LGBTQ youth as they face the issues of COVID-19 and the recent increased attention on racism and police brutality.
FAITH COMMUNITIES
- Strengthening Faith Community Connectedness during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) a diverse group of faith leaders discuss how they are using technology to strengthen connectedness virtually through holding online religious services, convening groups, and providing support to people who are struggling.
- COVID-19: Recommended Preventative Practices and FAQs for Faith-based and Community Leaders – This information sheet from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests how faith leaders can provide connection, support, ways to continue worship, and other services for their faith community and other people in their local community.
- Mental Health in a Time of COVID-19: When Trauma, Fear, and Anxiety Become Overwhelming (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helps faith and community leaders acknowledge and respond to individuals’ fear and anxiety and ask appropriate questions to consider the impact of trauma. It also suggests strategies for how leaders can respond, including a new program called Spiritual First Aid.
WORKPLACES
- EWLY ADDED! Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Unemployed Individuals, Parts 1 and 2 – This two-part webinar series from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides information on the potential impact of job loss and unemployment on mental health. It features evidence-based strategies that can be used to decrease the negative effects of unemployment on mental health and substance use.
- Employee Mental Health & Well-being During & Beyond COVID-19 – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employers can support the mental health and well-being of their employees. It includes sections on employee needs and how employers can lead and communicate well, adapt to the changes needed, and support employees in accessing care.
- Working Remotely During COVID-19: Your Mental Health & Well-Being – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employees can maintain their health, mental health and well-being during COVID-19 and what managers and human resources professionals can do to support employees.
- COVID-19 Resources for Organizations and Employees – This web page from the KonTerra Group contains links to information sheets and archived and upcoming webinars on a variety of topics for managers and employees related to coping during COVID-19.
- Promoting Workplace Mental Health in The Age of COVID-19 – This blog from SHRM provides suggestions for how workplaces and employees can support employees’ mental wellness efforts during COVID-19.
- Leading during COVID-19: How Anxiety and Depression Impact Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees who are experiencing anxiety and depression, especially during COVID-19.
- What to Know about Behavioral Health for Remote and Onsite Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees cope with working remotely and/or onsite during COVID-19.
COVID-19 Resource Lists from Partners of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center
- The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) has developed a list of resources on safe messaging and for some specific populations.
- The Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) has developed a resource list for health care leaders and mental health professionals that addresses safe suicide care.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a resource list for individuals, providers, communities, and states focused on behavioral health care.
- Education Development Center (EDC) has developed a list of resources related to health, mental health, and education.
SUPPORT IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Military Survivor Helpline
Please note this program is specifically designed for survivors grieving the death of a military loved one.
Individual grief counseling is important to many survivors in our grief journeys. The opportunity to sit one-on-one with a skilled therapist who understands grief and trauma can help you work through some of the hardest parts of your loss. Finding the right fit is important, and we can help. The right grief counselor can help you discover strengths, develop your own coping skills, and help you work through questions, changes in relationships, and secondary losses.
We rely on a large network of strong community partners, and we are confident we can connect you with resources specific to your needs. Each resource has been verified and actively supports the TAPS mission. We do careful research and compile resources with love and care.
Call our military survivor helpline
800-959-TAPS (8277)
or
email info@taps.org
to be connected with grief and trauma resources.
Resources for Families and Children Facing Tragic Events
Racial Stress – Racism – Hate Crimes
Helpful Resources to Address the Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Many thanks to Michelle Zabel, MSS, Assistant Dean, and Director, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, for compiling this list of resources in response to the horrific mass shooting in Texas earlier this week.
Helping Young People Cope With Mental Health Challenges
Vox Media’s NowThis is linking arms with Ken Burns and PBS to share an upcoming documentary titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” Scenes from the forthcoming film will be shared across NowThis social platforms throughout Mental Health Awareness Month in May. NowThis will host a live TikTok conversation about the topic, as well. The goal, Burns said, is “to get this material out to young people around the country.” The film itself will debut at the end of June on PBS.
Uplift by Youth Era: Teaching Youth Peer Support Skills
More than 500 youth signed up for the most recent Uplift event! Studied by the University of Oxford and co-designed with young adults, Uplift by Youth Era is the future of peer support. Empower a young person in your life to be who they need, and apply to join the next Uplift training in June!
Randolph “Randy” Muck September 14, 1955 to April 21, 2021 in Memoriam
On the first anniversary of his death, several of us who knew and worked with Randy write this tribute to remember and honor his impact on so many people. Randy provided much-needed leadership from within the federal government to develop and disseminate evidence-based substance use treatments designed for adolescents and their families. He was successful because he had a rare ability to connect with all the groups important to improving adolescent treatment: provider organizations, schools, juvenile justice, counselors, federal agency decision-makers, researchers, private foundations, and most importantly—adolescents and their families. He saw how these groups could align their different interests and collaborate. This, in turn, helped youth, families, and systems of care in ways that continue to have an impact.
HHS Awards Nearly $25 Million to Expand Access to School-Based Health Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recently announced nearly $25 million will be made available to improve and strengthen access to school-based health services in communities across the country. Awards will support local partnerships between schools and health centers to provide children and youth with the comprehensive physical and mental health care they need.
Investing in Prevention Makes Good Financial Sense
Primary prevention—including screening and intervention before negative health outcomes occur—is relatively inexpensive. The higher-risk behaviors it is designed to reduce are so costly to the healthcare system that it is staggeringly wasteful not to make sure that screening and treatment referrals are readily implemented and faithfully reimbursed by insurers and that interventions are convenient for parents and their children.
PAX Good Behavior Game
Speaking of prevention…
The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based universal preventive intervention applied by teachers in the classroom. This evidence-based practice consists of research-based strategies with origins in behavioral science, neuroscience, and cultural wisdom that operate together to improve children’s self-regulation. Teachers implement these strategies as part of their daily routines in carrying out tasks such as getting students’ attention, selecting students for tasks, transitioning from one task to the next, working as part of a team, limiting problematic behavior, and reinforcing pro-social behavior.
HHS Launches New Maternal Mental Health Hotline
The Maternal Mental Health Hotline is a new, confidential, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. Those who contact the hotline can receive a range of support, including brief interventions from trained culturally and trauma-informed counselors and referrals to both community-based and telehealth providers as needed. Callers also will receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and other community resources.
Six Things You Need To Know About Music and Health
A growing body of research suggests that listening to or performing music affects the brain in ways that may help promote health and manage disease symptoms. More justification for the plethora of music videos posted in Friday Update!
Know Your Rights: Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits
This brochure gives an overview of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. It lists some common limits placed on mental health and substance use disorder benefits and services.
Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech
Aaahhhh!!! Less than 20 days!!! Well? Have you registered for the 2022 Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech summit on June 8-9th yet? Can’t make it? Wondering if you can access all of the sessions with our hundreds of speakers after June 8-9th? YES, but ONLY if you register in advance. So, you should probably get on that.
Building a More Equitable Juvenile Justice System for Everyone
Racial inequities regarding the policing of children, and the subsequent disparities in their treatment within the juvenile justice system, have been problems in this country for far too long. It is encouraging that many states and counties are not only recognizing these issues but are taking action. The CSG Justice Center is committed to providing research-driven, data-informed solutions to our partners to continue building safer and stronger communities for everyone, especially our youth.
Disruptions to School and Home Life Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021
Young people have experienced disruptions to school and home life since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. From January to June 2021, CDC conducted the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public- and private-school students in grades 9–12. ABES data were used to estimate the prevalence of disruptions and adverse experiences during the pandemic, including parental and personal job loss, homelessness, hunger, emotional or physical abuse by a parent or other adult at home, receipt of telemedicine, and difficulty completing schoolwork. Prevalence estimates are presented for all students by sex, race and ethnicity, grade, sexual identity, and difficulty completing schoolwork.
CDC Survey Finds the Pandemic Had a Big Impact on Teens’ Mental Health
According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than four in 10 teens report feeling “persistently sad or hopeless” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls were twice as likely to experience mental health troubles compared to boys. And LGBTQ students were hit the hardest. The CDC’s findings were gathered from online surveys from a sample of 7,700 US students during the first six months of 2021.
New Initiative to Define Policy Recommendations for Embedding Equity into 988
The Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity & Beacon Health Options are joining forces to create and develop an equitable crisis response for the future of behavioral health service delivery ahead of the July 2022 launch of 988.
State Policymakers Can Support Equitable School-based Telemental Health Services
This brief presents five ways state policymakers can support equitable school-based telemental health services, with recommendations based on relevant policy context, existing research, and—in some cases—feedback from interviews with five TMH providers who testified to on-the-ground experience with these interventions.
- SAMHSA Disaster/Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
- SAMHSA Incidents of Mass Violence
- SAMHSA: Tips for Talking with and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event
- CDC Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach
- CDC Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
- NCSMH Supporting Students, Staff, Families & Communities Impacted by Violence
- NIMH Helping Children & Adolescents Cope with Traumatic Events
- Talking to Children About Terrorist Attacks & School & Community Shootings in the News
- CDC Caring for Children in a Disaster: Tools & Resources
- NCTSN School Shooting Resources
- Sesame Street in Communities: Community & Gun Violence
- AAP Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events
- AAP Talking with Children About Disasters
- CDC Helping Children Cope During & After a Disaster
Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
In times of community or world-wide crisis, it’s easy to assume that young children don’t know what’s going on. But one thing’s for sure — children are very sensitive to how their parents feel. They’re keenly aware of the expressions on their parents’ faces and the tone of their voices. Children can sense when their parents are really worried, whether they’re watching the news or talking about it with others. No matter what children know about a “crisis,” it’s especially scary for children to realize that their parents are scared.
Some Scary, Confusing Images
The way that news is presented on television can be quite confusing for a young child. The same video segment may be shown over and over again through the day, as if each showing was a different event. Someone who has died turns up alive and then dies again and again. Children often become very anxious since they don’t understand much about videotape replays, closeups, and camera angles. Any televised danger seems close to home to them because the tragic scenes are taking place on the TV set in their own living room. Children can’t tell the difference between what’s close and what’s far away, what’s real and what’s pretend, or what’s new and what’s re-run.
The younger the children are, the more likely they are to be interested in scenes of close-up faces, particularly if the people are expressing some strong feelings. When there’s tragic news, the images on TV are most often much too graphic and disturbing for young children.
“Who will take care of me?”
In times of crisis, children want to know, “Who will take care of me?” They’re dependent on adults for their survival and security. They’re naturally self-centered. They need to hear very clearly that their parents are doing all they can to take care of them and to keep them safe. They also need to hear that people in the government and other grown-ups they don’t even know are working hard to keep them safe, too.
Helping Children Feel More Secure
Play is one of the important ways young children have of dealing with their concerns. Of course, playing about violent news can be scary and sometimes unsafe, so adults need to be nearby to help redirect that kind of play into nurturing themes, such as a hospital for the wounded or a pretend meal for emergency workers.
When children are scared and anxious, they might become more dependent, clingy, and afraid to go to bed at night. Whining, aggressive behavior, or toilet “accidents” may be their way of asking for more comfort from the important adults in their lives. Little by little, as the adults around them become more confident, hopeful and secure, our children probably will, too.
Turn Off the TV
When there’s something tragic in the news, many parents get concerned about what and how to tell their children. It’s even harder than usual if we’re struggling with our own powerful feelings about what has happened. Adults are sometimes surprised that their own reactions to a televised crisis are so strong, but great loss and devastation in the news often reawaken our own earlier losses and fears – even some we think we might have “forgotten”
It’s easy to allow ourselves to get drawn into watching televised news of a crisis for hours and hours; however, exposing ourselves to so many tragedies can make us feel hopeless, insecure, and even depressed. We help our children and ourselves if we’re able to limit our own television viewing. Our children need us to spend time with them – away from the frightening images on the screen.
Talking and Listening
Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to give our children all the reasons for such things as war, terrorists, abuse, murders, major fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. If they ask questions, our best answer may be to ask them, “What do you think happened?” If the answer is “I don’t know,” then the simplest reply might be something like, “I’m sad about the news, and I’m worried. But I love you, and I’m here to care for you.”
If we don’t let children know it’s okay to feel sad and scared, they may think something is wrong with them when they do feel that way. They certainly don’t need to hear all the details of what’s making us sad or scared, but if we can help them accept their own feelings as natural and normal, their feelings will be much more manageable for them.
Angry feelings are part of being human, especially when we feel powerless. One of the most important messages we can give our children is, “It’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt ourselves or others.” Besides giving children the right to their anger, we can help them find constructive things to do with their feelings. This way, we’ll be giving them useful tools that will serve them all their life, and help them to become the worlds’ future peacemakers — the world’s future “helpers.”
Helpful Hints
- Do your best to keep the television off, or at least limit how much your child sees of any news event.
- Try to keep yourself calm. Your presence can help your child feel more secure.
- Give your child extra comfort and physical affection, like hugs or snuggling up together with a favorite book. Physical comfort goes a long way towards providing inner security. That closeness can nourish you, too.
- Try to keep regular routines as normal as possible. Children and adults count on their familiar pattern of everyday life.
- Plan something that you and your child enjoy doing together, like taking a walk, going on a picnic, having some quiet time, or doing something silly. It can help to know there are simple things in life that can help us feel better, in good times and in bad.
- Even if children don’t mention what they’ve seen or heard in the news, it can help to ask what they think has happened. If parents don’t bring up the subject, children can be left with their misinterpretations. You may be really surprised at how much your child has heard from others.
- Focus attention on the helpers, like the police, firemen, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and volunteers. It’s reassuring to know there are many caring people who are doing all they can to help others in this world.
- Let your child know if you’re making a donation, going to a town meeting, writing a letter or e-mail of support, or taking some other action. It can help children to know that adults take many different active roles and that we don’t give in to helplessness in times of worldwide crisis.
What do we tell our children?
How do we reassure them of their own safety?
At The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, we’ve provided grief support groups for children, teens, young adults and their parents or adult caregivers since 1982.
Based on our experience, here are some things for adults to keep in mind as you struggle with how to talk with children following tragic events, such as natural disasters, plane crashes, or school shootings.
1. Don’t project your fears onto your children. They take their cues from the adults around them.
You can’t hear the news about children being murdered or communities devastated by natural disasters without thinking about how you’d feel if it happened to your family, friends, or hometown. The outpouring of care and empathy for the families who lost loved ones will be powerful, and…we all know it could have been our friends, our child, our family and community members who died or were injured.
Identifying with the senselessness and randomness makes us all feel more vulnerable. But we should remember that children don’t always see things the same way that adults do, and it won’t be helpful to them for us to fall apart. They need to see that we care, that we feel terrible about this tragedy, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. They will take their cues from our behavior.
It’s okay to show emotion. We can model for children that feeling sad, scared, and upset is normal after tragedies. But we don’t want to overwhelm them with our emotions, or put them in the position of having to ‘parent,’ or take care of, the adults around them. Make sure you also model taking care of yourself, by sharing with trusted and supportive adult friends, eating (and drinking) healthfully.
2. Try to limit their access to the recurring news and exposure to the tragedy over and over.
Over-exposure to the graphic and emotional news can be overwhelming for children and can cause unnecessary anxiety and fear. Some children who repeatedly watched the footage of planes crashing into the towers on 9/11 thought it was happening again and again. Some children (and some adults) may have difficulty getting graphic scenes and images out of their minds. Too much exposure can fuel their fear, so don’t let them sit and watch the news over and over. Better yet, set the example of not doing so yourself as well.
3. Understand that you can’t completely shield them from what happened.
It would be next to impossible to hide these events from children, as much as we wish we could. You might be able to shield your own child in your home, for example, by not turning on (or owning) a television, but you can’t protect your children from hearing about it from other kids. The fact is, they will hear about it, so although they don’t “need” to know about it, pretending we can shield them is magical thinking.
That said, you don’t need to give them more information than they can handle, or more than they’re asking for. A simple, “Did they talk about what happened in _____ today at school?” would be a good starter. They need to know that you’re not trying to hide the truth from them, that you’re open to talking about it, but that you’re also not forcing them to do so.
4. Model truth-telling and build trust with your children by letting them hear things, even hard things, from you directly.
Eight days after the 9/11 attacks, I was meeting in small groups with pre-school workers in New York City, talking about how to respond to the young children in their care about the events. A man asked to speak to me privately after one of the trainings, and asked for my advice around his 7-year-old daughter. For the last week, since September 12th, she had been having stomach aches and difficulty sleeping. He said it was not tied to the events of 9/11 because, “We don’t have a television.” As his story unfolded it was evident that he did not want to have to explain to his child why people would do such horrible things, a normal dilemma that we face as parents and adults. This child was experiencing physical reactions, as it turned out, not primarily because of her reaction to the events of 9/11, but because she was unable to share her fears and concerns and questions in her own home, faced with her parents’ denial.
Here are some principles to keep in mind as you talk with children:
1. There is no one typical reaction one can or should expect from children.
Their responses will vary all over the ‘emotional’ map, from seeming disinterest to nightmares, eating issues, and anxiety. How any specific child will respond will depend on their age, previous experience with death and loss, and their personality style. Fearful children will tend to worry; quiet children may keep their feelings to themselves; those who want to appear unfazed may exhibit a sense of bravado or lack of caring. Of course, children directly affected – those who had a family member die; those who witnessed the tragedy; those who had friends die – will tend to have longer-term reactions and needs. Watch for changes in behavior, or concerning trends. While it would be normal to have heightened anxiety and sleeplessness, any concerning behavior or troubling symptoms should be taken seriously, and if warranted, professional help sought.
2. Many children will have an increased sense of fear about their safety.
Understandably. So will many adults. After a shooting at an Oregon mall in December 2012, the news outlets were filled with people who said they’d never take their children there again. Others said they’d return as soon as it opened in order to support the stores and employees who had experienced the traumatic events, and whose livelihoods were going to suffer as a result of the several day closure. Some runners in the Boston Marathon vowed to return; others said they would never do so again.
While we can’t guarantee to our children that nothing bad will ever happen to them, we can provide assurance that these events are relatively rare, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. Children may have many questions about the events, particularly about natural disasters. Answer their questions with language that fits their developmental stage. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question. If it’s a question that might have an answer, offer to look up more information. You can also ask children what they think the answer is as they often have thoughts and ideas they want to share with you. In the case of natural disasters, if your child is fearful of something like that happening in your community, talk with them about the safety plan that you have in place for your family and home. You can also look into what community safety measures are in place and whatever elements are relevant with your children. Many children will be reassured knowing that there are specific, tangible things they and your family can do if something occurs. Some examples include, picking a meeting place, keeping flashlights in every bedroom, talking about where you will keep emergency water and food.
3. Children want, need, and deserve the truth.
In over 30 years of providing grief support to thousands of children and teens at The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, we have never heard a child say, “I’m glad I was lied to.” Many, however, struggle with anger and lack of trust toward parents or other adults who lied to them. When we don’t tell the truth, they learn that we cannot be trusted. As difficult as it can be at times, and as horrendous as the truth may be, children want, need, and deserve the truth. Being able to talk openly and honestly with your children about tragic events and other losses, creates a foundation of trust, enabling them to come to you in the future with their questions, fears, and concerns.
How race-related stress affects you and your relationship with your child
What effect does racism have on your health and well-being?
Not only does racism impact you as a parent, it can also impact how you interact with your children. Experiences of racism build on each other and can chip away at your emotional, physical and spiritual resources as a parent, contributing to race-related stress. Race-related stress can make it hard to have the space needed to take care of yourself as a parent, which reduces the emotional space you need to adequately take care of your children.
Physical Effects
Physical Effects can include increased hypertension, illness and risky behaviors such as substance use.
Emotional Effects
Emotional effects can include depression, anxiety, anger, irritability and aggression.
Spiritual Effects
Spiritual effects can include a decreased sense of purpose, lack of connection with the larger community, isolation from larger social groups and reduced involvement in communal activities that you enjoy.
Potential reactions to racial stress or trauma
Insecure Feelings
Feelings of shame and lack of confidence due to feeling that a situation cannot be changed.
Lack of Trust
Feeling detached or a lack of trust for others due to experiencing multiple losses or letdowns. This can make it very difficult to seek out help and to identify potential safe sources of support.
Triggers
Reminders of the event, such as particular people or situations, can also trigger strong emotional or physical responses (e.g., crying or rapid heartbeat).
Difficulty Controlling Emotions
Difficulty controlling emotional responses (going from “zero to one hundred”) can occur as the body helps you adapt to potentially unsafe situations, making you feel constantly on “alert.”
The body’s response to the experience of racism can make accessing resources to cope with the situation difficult. Race-related stress is unique in that it threatens psychological resources that are needed to cope and fulfill basic needs such as financial support, housing, access to jobs, etc.
When your body is in stress mode, it is geared up to help you and your child survive, which sometimes leads to impulsive decisions. If you live in a chronic state of stress related to racism, you can start to engage in survival coping. Survival coping can help you to deal with very hard or potentially life-threatening situations. However, if you continue to exist in this mode long-term, it can make it difficult to enjoy being in the moment with your child and can reduce your ability to feel safe and in control.
What impact can racial stress have on your parenting?
Experiencing race-related stress can also impact the quality of parenting relationships in the following ways:
Impostor syndrome
When you are exposed to racism repeatedly, you often start doubting yourself and can feel like you are an imposter in dominant culture settings or in settings where you feel as though you do not belong. Your inner thoughts might sound something like: “Am I being judged?” “Am I worthy?” “I got lucky.” “I only got this because I am Black.”
Being overly alert (hypervigilance)
Experiencing racial stress can make you more aware of potential dangers and negative experiences that can occur. This, in turn, can make the experience of parenting even more stressful. When you interact with your children, you can sometimes be reminded of negative race-related experiences that you had when you were a child. This reminder can amp up emotional responses, or hyperarousal, making it hard for you to “keep your cool” and be open to flexible problem solving.
“Helicopter parenting” (monitoring in fear)
These experiences of racism and unwarranted blame or lack of acceptance can make you want to protect your children so much, that you don’t allow them to explore in the way that they need to. You may shelter them from failures, which everyone needs to experience in order to learn how to manage everyday life. You may tend to be overly cautious or suspicious. Examples can include not allowing your children to have sleepovers or go to the park, even with your supervision.
Difficulty regulating emotions
- When your past influences your emotional state, it can affect your emotional responses to both big and minor stressors with children, such as when they misbehave. This, in turn, can lead to being overprotective or overuse of physical discipline, as a means of survival.
- For children, having parents who can keep perspective (stay cool) when children are upset, or misbehaving is very important. Likewise, it is important to stay calm when disciplining a child, otherwise discipline may go overboard. Both of these things can be hard if you are having difficulty controlling your emotions.
Avoidance
- Avoiding situations that are related to racism can be a needed strategy to survive; such as instances that may involve violence or threat to yourself or your family. Sometimes you may avoid reminders of past experiences due to the pain or discomfort they cause.
- If you find yourself avoiding strong feelings or situations with your child that bring up painful memories, it may make it hard to show affection and support for your child. It may even make it difficult to know how to provide emotional support for your child during times of stress. For instance, if your child brings up their own experience of oppression or an event in their life reminds you of something from your own childhood.
Mistrusting others
- Racism can lead to distrust or mistrust of other communities. Internalized racism is when you begin to accept negative messages about your own abilities and inherent worth by the dominant group in society.
- When you use society’s norms to judge yourself, you can feel depressed, unworthy and just not good enough. You are taught in many ways to take these feelings and paint them onto another group.
- Intra and interracial violence, contention among disenfranchised communities or color, and the way the media conveys information about people of color, contribute to this.
- This kind of coping can make you more vulnerable to racism, because on some level you may believe in racial hierarchy and difference when you belittle other groups. And when you show your children that it is right to discriminate against certain other groups, you make them more vulnerable to discrimination that they face.
Minimizing racism
- Racism is overwhelming, as is the history of violence. You are sometimes taught that accepting this and minimizing racism is the only thing you can do. But when you ignore racism, and accept powerlessness, you encourage your kids to internalize racism. This can lead to increased levels of depression, anxiety and externalizing behaviors (e.g., engaging in risky behaviors, such as alcohol or substance use).
- When you believe that you should be able to handle and manage it all without a break or without asking for help, you are at increased risk for health problems and can miss important cues about your well-being and safety.
Self-blame
Experiencing chronically unfair and dangerous discriminatory practices due to race can lead to feelings of low worth. For parents, this can also lead to a questioning of your parenting choices and abilities.
Unbalanced Racial and Ethnic Socialization (RES)
Unbalanced messaging or communication about race and ethnicity occurs when you only promote messages of mistrust, preparation for bias, or only give racial pride messages to your children.
Strategies to deal with racial stress and practice self-care.
So, what can you do to mitigate racial stress?
As parents, it is important to develop positive identities and share your cultural identities with your children. Positive cultural identity and advocacy are protective factors against racism, which can help to reduce and prevent racial stress.
There are many other ways to cope with stress and everyone has different preferences. Reducing stress can also allow you to model healthy coping strategies for your child. Here are some suggestions you can try.
- Build or access a support network
- Incorporate traditions at home
- Get some exercise
- Deep breathing
- Journal
- Limit your media intake
- Counseling/therapy
- Spirituality
- Podcast
You are not the only person dealing with race-related stress and connecting with other people with similar experiences and feelings can help you to successfully navigate racism.
- Talk with family and trusted friends specifically about racialized events that have occurred and how to handle them
- Start or join a group with others who may have had similar experiences and similar interests, like a book club that reads books by Black authors, or spend time with other African American parents who have the same concerns you do about how your children are treated at the school.
- Seek out activities that you can do with your friends or family (e.g., exercising, cooking, watching a family show or movie together, etc.)
Legislation
Much of the debate today is around gun control. Below are links to two bills currently pending in Congress.
HR 1446 Enhanced Background Check Act of 2021
HR 8 Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Resource Lists to Support Mental Health and Coping with the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
LISTS COURTESY OF THE SUICIDE PREVENTION RESCOURCE CENTER
GENERAL AUDIANCE
- NEWLY ADDED! Coping-19 – This website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ad Council provides resources for people dealing with anxiety, depression, financial uncertainty, grief, isolation, prejudice, or sleeplessness. It also provides resources on healthy living topics such as exercise, nutrition, and meditation, family activities, and medical guidance.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Stress and Coping – This web page contains basic guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on managing mental health stressors during COVID-19. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health: Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation during an Infectious Disease Outbreak – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides information on typical reactions to social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, and ways to take care of oneself. The sheet also provides a list of hotlines and other resources for obtaining help.
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Considerations during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This information sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO) contains suggestions for coping with COVID-19 for the general population and specific groups including health care workers, caretakers of children and older adults, and people living in isolation.
- Taking Care of Your Mental Health in the Face of Uncertainty – This blog post from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) provides five suggestions for coping with the uncertainty due to COVID-19. Available in Spanish.
- Helpful Thinking during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing negative thoughts and feelings you may be having and helpful thoughts you can try instead to feel more positive. The categories included are concerns about safety, feeling unable to cope, helplessness, guilt, and anger. Available in Spanish.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Grief and Loss – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains information on coping with grief and loss, including loss of a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic, loss due to changes in daily routines and ways of life, and helping children cope with grief. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Coronavirus Anxiety: Helpful Expert Tips and Resources– This web page, updated daily by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), contains links to a wide variety of resources for coping with general anxiety and some specific anxiety disorders during COVID-19, including articles, information sheets, blog posts, and videos.
- Coping with Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks– This web page from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides bulleted lists of behavioral, physical, emotional, and mental responses that are common signs of stress and anxiety during infectious disease pandemics like COVID-19. It also includes ways to relieve the stress.
- Tips for Coping with Coronavirus Stress – This sheet from PsychAlive provides suggestions for self-care to help cope with stress during COVID-19, including mindfulness meditation; a breathing exercise; practicing self-compassion, optimism, and gratitude; and connecting with other people and with nature.
- How to Support a Loved One Going through a Tough Time during COVID-19 – This web page from Mental Health First Aid provides tips for reaching out to someone who may need emotional support.
- Tips for Supporting Others during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing simple ways to talk with others that show support. It includes examples of statements and questions that can be adapted for the specific person and situation. Available in Spanish.
- Managing Family Conflict While Home during COVID-19: Intimate Partners – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides strategies that may help partners manage conflict during periods of confinement at home.
- Coronavirus: Building Mental Health Resilience – This blog post from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) suggests ways to build resilience, which means learning healthy ways to adapt and cope with adversity and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses growing emotionally beyond simply coping.
- Building Resiliency to Isolation & Loneliness: How to Increase Our Resiliency during the COVID-19 Crisis (Archived Webinar)– This webinar from Mental Health America enables participants to learn the impact of crisis situations, loneliness, and isolation; understand what resiliency is and where it comes from; and learn practical and achievable ways to increase one’s resiliency.
- Managing Our Fears and Stress: Strategies to Cultivate Emotional Agility (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Susan David, PhD, discusses how to cultivate agility in coping with our emotions within ourselves and organizations in the context of the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
- Responding to COVID-19: Provider Well-Being – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address the well-being of mental health providers. It includes webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- Responding to COVID-19: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Child Abuse – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that can help mental health providers address IPV and child abuse with the clients they serve. It includes webinars and print materials.
- Treating Suicidal Patients during COVID-19: Best Practices and Telehealth (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), experts discuss three best practices for treating people at risk of suicide that can be delivered effectively via telehealth: safety plans, treatment that directly targets suicidal thoughts, and DBT-based self-help skills. Also available is a series of three brief videos made from this webinar.
- Safe Suicide Care During a Pandemic – This web page from the Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) contains descriptions of, and links to, resources for health care leaders and mental health professionals on providing safe suicide care.
- Trauma Informed Clinical Care during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar Series) – This series of four webinars for mental health clinicians from the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide includes lessons learned from previous mass trauma events translated into practical suggestions for the current pandemic. The webinars are:
- Part 1: Unpacking the Impact of COVID-19 Trauma
- Part 2: Supporting People through Grief and Trauma
- Part 3: Understanding Suicide Risk during COVID-19
- Part 4: Surviving and Thriving—Finding Your Own Path to Wisdom and Healing
- For Mental Health Providers: Working with Patients Affected by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on the challenges patients may face during COVID-19, how to talk with patients in the context of COVID-19, ways to modify treatment, and a framework to help patients manage their reactions related to COVID-19.
- Tools for Behavioral Health Professionals During a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for behavioral health professionals on maintaining wellness, recognizing signs of burnout, supporting staff, and using telehealth.
- Supportive Practices for Mental Health Professionals During Pandemic-Related Social Distancing – This sheet from the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) contains information on challenges mental health professionals face with social distancing, and suggestions for how to support oneself and work with supervisees.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Crisis Services (Part 2): Culturally Responsive Factors in COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – In the context of COVID-19, this webinar from the Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) discusses how cultural factors impact the experience of a crisis, cultural idioms of distress, the benefits and challenges of telehealth, and the Cultural Formulation Interview techniques to effectively use in telehealth.
- Taking Care of Patients During the Coronavirus Outbreak: A Guide for Psychiatrists – This sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides information on some common psychological and behavioral responses to expect and suggestions for how to work with patients.
- Telehealth Tips: Managing Suicidal Clients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This information sheet from the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute provides tips for evaluating and treating people who are suicidal using telehealth. It also includes steps and a template for developing a safety plan.
- Notification of Enforcement Discretion on Telehealth Remote Communications during COVID-19 Nationwide Public Health Emergency – This web page from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides information on what is now allowed for the use of telehealth in relation to the regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Telepsychiatry in the Era of COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar by SMI Adviser provides an overview of how to use telemental health and video visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes information on the legal, clinical, cultural, and practical aspects of using technology to deliver care. It covers topics such as which telemental health platform to use, licensure, consent, online prescribing, and billing.
- COVID-19 Tips: Building Rapport with Youth via Telehealth – This article by Van Dyk, et al. at the UCLA Pediatric Psychology Consultation Liaison Service provides tips on how to introduce telehealth to children and adolescents, build rapport with them, and keep them engaged.
HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS
- Emergency Responders: Tips for Taking Care of Yourself – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides signs of burnout and secondary traumatic stress as well as self-care techniques and tips for setting up a buddy system with another emergency responder for mutual support.
- Strategies to Support the Health and Well-Being of Clinicians During the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) includes strategies health care leaders and managers can use to support their clinical staff and self-care strategies for clinicians.
- Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on possible causes of stress for health care workers during COVID-19, ways to manage stress through preparedness, and ways to cope with stress during the pandemic and its aftermath.
- Tips for Healthcare Professionals: Coping with Stress and Compassion Fatigue – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on stress and signs of distress and compassion fatigue after a disaster. It describes strategies to cope and enhance resilience, including instructions for relaxation exercises, and lists resources for more information and support.
- Tips for Disaster Responders: Preventing and Managing Stress – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on preparing for a disaster and coping during and after it. Suggestions for planning with loved ones are included.
- First Responders First: Sustaining Yourself During the Coronavirus Crisis – This tip sheet from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Thrive Global provides small steps that first responders can take throughout their work day as well as outside of work to manage stress and maintain well-being.
- Caring for Yourself & Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, discusses ways that health care workers can manage stress—theirs and others’—during COVID-19. It is accompanied by handouts for health and mental health care providers on managing stress and on using the seven steps of Stress First Aid for self-care and peer support.
- Leading with Compassion: Supporting Healthcare Workers in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, of the UVA School of Nursing discuss what health care leaders can do to support their teams during the COVID-19 crisis. It is accompanied by four handouts for health care leaders.
- Caring with Compassion: Supporting Patients and Families in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, discuss strategies health care professionals can use to address the five essential human needs that support recovery from adversity and stress. They also explain how to use the Stress First Aid framework to assess for stress injury, discuss patient needs, and make referrals to other supports.
- Supporting a Family Member Who Is a Health Care Worker – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of a family member who is a health care worker. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
- Supporting the Children and Teens of Health Care Workers – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of children and teens of health care workers. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
COMMUNITY LEADERS
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Reducing Stigma – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides basic information about stigma related to COVID-19 and ways that public health officials and other community leaders can reduce it.
- Social Stigma Associated with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – This information sheet from several organizations including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) explains what social stigma is, why it is occurring so much with COVID-19, its impact, and how to address it. The sheet suggests preferred language and messages to use when talking about COVID-19 and provides examples of actions that can counter stigmatizing attitudes.
- For Providers and Community Leaders: Helping People Manage Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This web page from the National Center for PTSD offers five key principles for community leaders, health care providers, and others addressing the public’s psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as steps they can take to help.
- Psychological Effects of Quarantine During the Coronavirus Outbreak: What Public Health Leaders Need to Know – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes some of the factors relevant to senior public health officials, such as local, state, and tribal health authorities, in addressing the psychological effects related to quarantine.
- Mental Health and Behavioral Guidelines for Preparedness and Response to Coronavirus and other Emerging Infectious Outbreaks – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes steps that public health officials and other community leaders can take to address the coronavirus pandemic during the phases of preparedness, early pandemic response, later response and recovery, and mental health intervention planning.
- How Leaders Can Maximize Trust and Minimize Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This web page from the American Psychological Association (APA) provides suggestions for how leaders, including government officials, business managers, educators, and parents, can maximize their ability to communicate well during COVID-19.
- The Critical Role of Prevention During and Post Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Great Lakes PTTC is a starting point for a regional dialogue as organizations start preparing for recovery from the many effects of COVID-19 including on substance misuse, mental health, suicide, and domestic violence, and the important role that prevention professionals will play in the response.
AMERICAN INDIANS AND ALASKA NATIVES
- NEWLY ADDED! Staying Safe and Mentally Well During COVID-19 – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides suggestions for how to relieve stress that are tailored for American Indian and Alaska Native people.
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19 and Anxiety (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on anxiety, how feelings of anxiety may be heightened during the pandemic, resources and coping mechanisms that may help, and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- NEWLY ADDED! Suicidality and COVID-19: How to Help (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on suicide in Indian Country; intervention and prevention; what is unique about COVID-19 that may contribute to suicide risk; resources and suggestions that may help; and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- Physically Distant but Socially Close: Indigenous Resilience and COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute suggests adaptations of some common native cultural practices so that they can be safe and fulfilling. These include ways of greetings each other, enjoying food and community, dancing, and engaging in ceremony.
- Managing Stress during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on the signs of stress, how to manage stress, and support for people at risk of violence in the home.
- A Historical Trauma-informed Approach to COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute shares ways that urban Indian organizations can support the people they serve, their staff, and their communities experiencing both current and historical trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Recommendations for Tribal Ceremonies and Gatherings during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains recommendations to assist in reducing the spread of COVID-19 during tribal ceremonies and practices such as sweat lodges, social gatherings, and seasonal ceremonies. These events are important in protecting the health and well-being of tribal members.
- Elder Mental Health During COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on ways to support American Indian elders during COVID-19. It includes suggestions for managing stress, activities to help maintain well-being, ways to support elders with medical needs, and steps residential care facilities can take to ensure elders’ safety.
- Tips for Health and Wellness for Elders – This information sheet from the National Indian Health Board for Native elders contains health and wellness tips to help cope with COVID-19.
- Stress and Anxiety Management for Community Health Workers during Coronavirus – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on the signs of stress and anxiety and how to cope with them.
- Positive Parenting during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on how parents can reduce their stress and how to help their children cope during COVID-19.
- Talking to Kids about Coronavirus (COVID-19) – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health for parents and other family members provides tips for talking with kids about COVID-19, including how to get the conversation started.
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITES
- NEWLY ADDED! Redefining the Sophomore Slump during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar). This webinar from Kognito is a panel discussion with three higher education leaders who discuss what they are expecting when students return to campus, the types of conversations campus members may need to have with students and the support they can provide as students adjust to a new normal given what they have experienced during COVID-19, including grief, loneliness, uncertainty, and fear.
- Students Struggle but Don’t Seek Colleges’ Help – This article from Inside Higher Ed describes the low use of college counseling services compared to student needs, the possible reasons, and where else students are getting support. Then it provides 12 suggestions for improving college mental health services now and after the pandemic.
- Supporting Vulnerable Campus Populations during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This set of guidelines from the American College Health Association (ACHA) provides information on how to support college and university populations that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and economic downturn. It covers Black, Asian, first generation/low income (FGLI), international, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Native American, undocumented students, and students with disabilities.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for Higher Education Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has suggestions for how higher education professionals can help their students and links to other resources.
- Tips to Stay Mentally Well While Working from Home– This blog post from Active Minds provides a list of tips for staying mentally well and focused while making the transition to studying or working from home.
- Mental Health Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from Active Minds provides a variety of resources for students, parents, and faculty to help support student mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Included are videos, blog posts, and webinars.
- Managing Stress During Distance Learning – How Faculty Can Support Their Students (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Jed Foundation, expert panelists discuss how faculty can support their students during this time of distance learning, including identifying students in distress and addressing the needs of particularly vulnerable student populations.
- Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students During a Pandemic (Archived Webinar Series) – This is a series of two webinars from the Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) and Active Minds:
- Session I: Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students during a Pandemic – This session focuses on the impact the pandemic is having on college students’ mental health and well-being and ways to address their needs.
- Session II: Campus Mental Health: How Do We Come Back to the New Normal? – This session covers what coming back to the “new normal” will look like for college students’ as they return to campus and how campuses can effectively support the return of students in providing a place for recovery and education.
SCHOOLS
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19: Resource Center: Guidance and Supports This part of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website includes links to numerous resources under the categories of “Return to School,” “Crisis & Mental Health,” “Families & Educators,” and “Service Delivery & Special Education.”
- NEWLY ADDED! Behavioral Health Impacts During & After COVID-19: What to Expect and Ways to Prepare for the Return to In-Person Learning This short guide from the Northwest MHTTC provides information on what to expect as students return to school and ways to prepare at the staff, building, and district levels. It can help school and district teams consider a range of strategies and supports for students, families, and staff.
- NEWLY ADDED! Five Ways to Talk with Students Returning After Pandemic Closures This brief guide from Kognito provides information and five specific examples of how educators can have the most helpful one-to-one conversations with students when trying to understand what’s underlying their behavior.
- CASEL Cares Initiative COVID-19 Resources – This webpage from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) contains guidelines for educators, parents, and caregivers with four focus areas, and a large list of resources on social and emotional learning for educators.
- Creating Positive Learning Environments: Recommendations and Resources to Support the Social Emotional Well-being of Students, Staff, and Families – This short report offers guidance compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on how to support the social emotional learning and mental and behavioral health needs of students and staff as they prepare for the return to school.
- COVID19K12Counseling.org – This website from the California Association of School Counselors and Wisconsin School Counselors Association provides information and links to resources for administrators, teachers, school-based mental health service providers, caregivers, and students from pre-K through 12th grade. Topics include school reopening, mental health, college and career, anti-racism and equity, and special populations.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for High School Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist high school professionals in helping their students cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Responding to COVID-19: School Mental Health – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address educator well-being and a list of other COVID-related school mental health resources. Both lists include webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- COVID-19 Resources – This web page from the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) provides many resources on mental health and coping, with sections specifically for school staff and administrators and for students and families. It also has a section on technology to support school mental health, and a webinar for school mental health clinicians on using telemental health to provide services and support to students and families.
- Trauma-Informed School Strategies during COVID-19 – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides specific guidance for educators, school staff, and administrators on the physical and emotional well-being of staff; creating a trauma-informed learning environment; identifying, assessing, and treating traumatic stress; trauma education; partnerships with students and families; cultural responsiveness, emergency management and crisis response; and school discipline.
- Supporting Students Experiencing Trauma During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This blog from the Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia (REL Appalachia) lists common trauma symptoms and provides preventive strategies that can be used virtually to create a safe and predictable environment, build relationships, and help students with self-regulation. It also provides links to other resources to use in supporting students.
- Tools for Educators during a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for educators on self-care, signs of distress, and strategies for working parents and students.
- School Staff Self-Care during COVID-19 – This sheet from the Association of California School Administrators provides information on the importance of self-care for educators and strategies for self-care, including creativity and mindfulness.
- How to Cope with Uncertainty: Safety, Predictability, Control (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations and Riverside Trauma Center provides school personnel with information on how to cope with the uncertainty of COVID-19 using a framework of safety, predictability, and control. It offers tips on how to increase your sense of control in your life and how to help students cope.
- Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention during COVID-19: What School-Based Staff Need to Know (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the School-Based Health Alliance and the National Center for School Mental Health provides information and resources to support school staff as they manage current or emerging suicidal thoughts and behaviors in students during COVID-19. It covers safety planning, identifying and responding to youth who may be at risk, and postvention.
PARENTS AND CARE GIVERS
- EWLY ADDED! COVID-19 Resource Guide for Parents and Guardians – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist parents and guardians in helping themselves and their teenage and young adult children cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Talking with Children: Tips for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers during Infectious Disease Outbreaks – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides caregivers, parents, and teachers with information on reactions children and youth may have during an infectious disease outbreak and how to support them. Some of the information is tailored for different age groups.
- Helping Children Cope Emotionally with the Coronavirus – This web page from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS) provides parents with specific suggestions for helping children cope with COVID-19.
- Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides parents and caregivers with information related to the health and mental health aspects of coping with COVID-19. It includes a list by age groups of some typical reactions and ways to help children cope.
- Countering COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Stigma and Racism: Tips for Parents and Caregivers - This information sheet from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) contains tips for parents and caregivers on addressing stigma and racism related to COVID-19 with children. It also provides suggestions to help children feel safe and deal with stigma they may encounter.
- COVID-19: Five Helpful Responses for Families – This web page from Conscious Discipline provides information on five ways to help children feel safe and connected during COVID-19. Each section includes links to activities, examples, stories, and webinars for children and parents to help incorporate the strategies.
- Supporting Families During COVID-19 – This resource list from the Child Mind Institute includes links to a large number of resources, including ones specifically for children with anxiety disorders, ADHD, autism, and PTSD. There are also links to resources relevant for all children on managing anxiety, discipline and behavior, and dealing with loss.
- How to Avoid Passing Anxiety on to Your Kids – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides information and strategies to help parents deal with their own anxiety and keep from passing it on to their children.
- Supporting Teenagers and Young Adults During the Coronavirus Crisis – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides tips specifically for parenting teenagers and young adults home from college during the pandemic.
- Teachers and Parents: Working Together to Make Distance Learning Work – This web page from Mental Health America briefly describes ways that parents and teachers can work together to increase the success of distance/virtual learning for school-age students.
- Co-Parenting during a Pandemic – This information sheet from Parents Lead.org contains a checklist with items that can help in adjusting co-parenting plans. It also provides information on what to do if one parent thinks the other parent is a risk due to COVID-19
TEENAGERS
- NEWLY ADDED! Mental Health Advocacy Online – This webpage from Active Minds includes a short video of high school students sharing their experiences during COVID-19. It also has links to free self-care resources for teens and young adults and a network where student leaders can chat about promoting mental health during COVID-19.
- How to Maintain Your Social Relationships during Online School (For Kids and Teens) – This web page from Mental Health America contains ideas for teenagers and kids on how to keep up relationships with their friends when school is online.
- What Can I Do When I’m Afraid? – This web page from Mental Health America for teenagers briefly describes what fear is and some ways to deal with it.
- Teen Voices: Coping with the Pandemic – In this short video from MindWise Innovations, teens talk about the challenges they’re experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, how they’re learning to cope, and what they need from adults.
OLDER ADULTS
- Reducing Loneliness and Social Isolation among Older Adults – This sheet by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) provides information on the risk factors for and impact of loneliness and social isolation on older adults, tools to identify loneliness in older adults, and interventions and resources to reduce loneliness and isolation.
- Seven Ways to Cope with Anxiety during the Coronavirus Outbreak – This web page from AARP for older adults briefly describes seven things to do to help cope with anxiety during COVID-19. Also available in Spanish.
- COVID-19: We Must Care for Older Adults’ Mental Health – This web page from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) covers key risk factors that impact mental health and well-being in older adults and how they can be worsened by COVID-19. It also includes steps that everyone can take to support older adults during COVID-19.
- 7 Ways to Boost Your Loved One’s Morale during the Coronavirus Epidemic – This web page from AARP for loved ones of older adults briefly describes seven ways to help keep older adults engaged and decrease their feeling of isolation even when you cannot be with them in person. It includes a section with tips for thanking the staff at a care center. Also available in Spanish.
- Older Adults & Isolation during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from Mental Health America for older adults and people who support them describes challenges faced by many older adults that can be worsened by COVID-19 and ways that peer support specialists can help. It also provides specific suggestions for older adults living in isolation on how they can connect with other people, including online.
- How to Introduce Seniors to Video Chatting to Combat Loneliness – This blog post from Family Matters In-Home Care provides tips for helping older adults get set up using video chatting on whatever platform is easiest for them.
- Encouraging Older Adults to Stay Active and Safe during the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) provides tips for older adults on how to safely stay active and exercise at home. Staying active can help with mental health and coping. Also included is a link to some exercise videos specifically for older adults.
- Feeling Good and Staying Connected: An Activity Guide – This guide from the California Department of Aging contains suggestions for a wide variety of activities that older adults can do safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has some worksheets to help plan activities each week.
HISPANICS/LATINOS
- NEWLY ADDED! Stress Management: The Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Latino Families This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC reviews stressors that have been intensified due to the COVID pandemic. It also identifies stress management tools that can be used for school-aged children and those who provide services to them in school-based settings. Special considerations for Latino youth mental health are also discussed.
- For information sheets in Spanish for a general audience, see the General Audience section above.
- Strategies to Support the LatinX Community – In this presentation by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network and the Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network, four presenters discuss ways substance misuse providers can support Latinos during COVID-19, including those with substance misuse problems.
- Stress Management during Quarantine for Mental Health Providers Serving Latino Clients (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC identifies stressors in the Hispanic and Latino population that can be exacerbated during quarantines for infectious disease outbreaks. It covers tools for stress management tools that mental health providers can use with their Hispanic and Latino clients. Special considerations regarding telemental health and for working with Latino youth are also provided.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Telehealth Services for Latino Populations during a Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC covers the challenges of treating Latino clients during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to assess and provide interventions to meet the needs of Latino individuals using telehealth modalities.
- Therapeutic Interventions for Hispanic and Latino Populations with Trauma Experiences: Considerations during the Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC focuses on the common treatment barriers when working with Hispanics and Latinos who are traumatized. It provides practical strategies for overcoming these barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies for trauma processing, and a concrete model for rapid crisis de-escalation.
- COVID-19 and the Impact on Intimate Partner Violence for Latinos (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including shelter in place practices and isolation, on Latino/Hispanic individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). It also covers cultural resilience and coping strategies relevant to Latino families, and ways to reduce stress and IPV.
LGBTQ
- How LGBTQ Youth Can Cope with Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19 – This blog post from The Trevor Project provides information for LGBTQ youth on what they may be experiencing and feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to manage the intense emotions that may occur.
- 9 Strategies for Quarantining in a Non-LGBTQ+ Affirming Environment – This article from the LGBTQ+ community platform, them., provides suggestions for LGBTQ+ youth on how to live in isolation with people who may not accept one’s LGBTQ identity. Therapists and crisis management experts from The Trevor Project helped compile the information.
- Queer Lives Worth Living (Archived Open Conversation) – This conversation with two staff from The Trevor Project and the president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is directed toward providers serving LGBTQ youth. The focus is how to address the needs of LGBTQ youth as they face the issues of COVID-19 and the recent increased attention on racism and police brutality.
FAITH COMMUNITIES
- Strengthening Faith Community Connectedness during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) a diverse group of faith leaders discuss how they are using technology to strengthen connectedness virtually through holding online religious services, convening groups, and providing support to people who are struggling.
- COVID-19: Recommended Preventative Practices and FAQs for Faith-based and Community Leaders – This information sheet from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests how faith leaders can provide connection, support, ways to continue worship, and other services for their faith community and other people in their local community.
- Mental Health in a Time of COVID-19: When Trauma, Fear, and Anxiety Become Overwhelming (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helps faith and community leaders acknowledge and respond to individuals’ fear and anxiety and ask appropriate questions to consider the impact of trauma. It also suggests strategies for how leaders can respond, including a new program called Spiritual First Aid.
WORKPLACES
- EWLY ADDED! Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Unemployed Individuals, Parts 1 and 2 – This two-part webinar series from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides information on the potential impact of job loss and unemployment on mental health. It features evidence-based strategies that can be used to decrease the negative effects of unemployment on mental health and substance use.
- Employee Mental Health & Well-being During & Beyond COVID-19 – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employers can support the mental health and well-being of their employees. It includes sections on employee needs and how employers can lead and communicate well, adapt to the changes needed, and support employees in accessing care.
- Working Remotely During COVID-19: Your Mental Health & Well-Being – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employees can maintain their health, mental health and well-being during COVID-19 and what managers and human resources professionals can do to support employees.
- COVID-19 Resources for Organizations and Employees – This web page from the KonTerra Group contains links to information sheets and archived and upcoming webinars on a variety of topics for managers and employees related to coping during COVID-19.
- Promoting Workplace Mental Health in The Age of COVID-19 – This blog from SHRM provides suggestions for how workplaces and employees can support employees’ mental wellness efforts during COVID-19.
- Leading during COVID-19: How Anxiety and Depression Impact Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees who are experiencing anxiety and depression, especially during COVID-19.
- What to Know about Behavioral Health for Remote and Onsite Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees cope with working remotely and/or onsite during COVID-19.
COVID-19 Resource Lists from Partners of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center
- The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) has developed a list of resources on safe messaging and for some specific populations.
- The Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) has developed a resource list for health care leaders and mental health professionals that addresses safe suicide care.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a resource list for individuals, providers, communities, and states focused on behavioral health care.
- Education Development Center (EDC) has developed a list of resources related to health, mental health, and education.
SUPPORT IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Military Survivor Helpline
Please note this program is specifically designed for survivors grieving the death of a military loved one.
Individual grief counseling is important to many survivors in our grief journeys. The opportunity to sit one-on-one with a skilled therapist who understands grief and trauma can help you work through some of the hardest parts of your loss. Finding the right fit is important, and we can help. The right grief counselor can help you discover strengths, develop your own coping skills, and help you work through questions, changes in relationships, and secondary losses.
We rely on a large network of strong community partners, and we are confident we can connect you with resources specific to your needs. Each resource has been verified and actively supports the TAPS mission. We do careful research and compile resources with love and care.
Call our military survivor helpline
800-959-TAPS (8277)
or
email info@taps.org
to be connected with grief and trauma resources.
KIVA Centers Groups
Coping Skills
Sundays,11AM-12PM PDT
To Join Via ZOOM
Kiva Centers:
- 427 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608
- 508-466-7154 Admin Offices
- 508-751-9600 Kiva Centers
- info@kivacenters.org
CPS Inquiries:
Thank you for reaching out to us! Learn to Cope (LTC) is a non-profit organization that offers family-focused peer-support for parents and loved ones of those impacted by substance use disorder. LTC offers FREE weekly in person and online ZOOM meetings where participants gain education about the disease of addiction, share their experience as family members, exchange resources and most importantly share HOPE.
Virtual Meetings are held online via ZOOM and can be accessed with a computer, tablet, or phone. ZOOM links are not posted publicly therefore to attend you must fill out the Stay Connected form (in English / en español) to request more information from a Regional Manager. (please allow 24-48 hours for a response)
Online Meetings Monday through Thursday Evenings 4:00PM PST
To Attend, Follow This Link To Register
https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E347632&id=12
Resources for Families and Children Facing Tragic Events
Racial Stress – Racism – Hate Crimes
Helpful Resources to Address the Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Many thanks to Michelle Zabel, MSS, Assistant Dean, and Director, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, for compiling this list of resources in response to the horrific mass shooting in Texas earlier this week.
Helping Young People Cope With Mental Health Challenges
Vox Media’s NowThis is linking arms with Ken Burns and PBS to share an upcoming documentary titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” Scenes from the forthcoming film will be shared across NowThis social platforms throughout Mental Health Awareness Month in May. NowThis will host a live TikTok conversation about the topic, as well. The goal, Burns said, is “to get this material out to young people around the country.” The film itself will debut at the end of June on PBS.
Uplift by Youth Era: Teaching Youth Peer Support Skills
More than 500 youth signed up for the most recent Uplift event! Studied by the University of Oxford and co-designed with young adults, Uplift by Youth Era is the future of peer support. Empower a young person in your life to be who they need, and apply to join the next Uplift training in June!
Randolph “Randy” Muck September 14, 1955 to April 21, 2021 in Memoriam
On the first anniversary of his death, several of us who knew and worked with Randy write this tribute to remember and honor his impact on so many people. Randy provided much-needed leadership from within the federal government to develop and disseminate evidence-based substance use treatments designed for adolescents and their families. He was successful because he had a rare ability to connect with all the groups important to improving adolescent treatment: provider organizations, schools, juvenile justice, counselors, federal agency decision-makers, researchers, private foundations, and most importantly—adolescents and their families. He saw how these groups could align their different interests and collaborate. This, in turn, helped youth, families, and systems of care in ways that continue to have an impact.
HHS Awards Nearly $25 Million to Expand Access to School-Based Health Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recently announced nearly $25 million will be made available to improve and strengthen access to school-based health services in communities across the country. Awards will support local partnerships between schools and health centers to provide children and youth with the comprehensive physical and mental health care they need.
Investing in Prevention Makes Good Financial Sense
Primary prevention—including screening and intervention before negative health outcomes occur—is relatively inexpensive. The higher-risk behaviors it is designed to reduce are so costly to the healthcare system that it is staggeringly wasteful not to make sure that screening and treatment referrals are readily implemented and faithfully reimbursed by insurers and that interventions are convenient for parents and their children.
PAX Good Behavior Game
Speaking of prevention…
The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based universal preventive intervention applied by teachers in the classroom. This evidence-based practice consists of research-based strategies with origins in behavioral science, neuroscience, and cultural wisdom that operate together to improve children’s self-regulation. Teachers implement these strategies as part of their daily routines in carrying out tasks such as getting students’ attention, selecting students for tasks, transitioning from one task to the next, working as part of a team, limiting problematic behavior, and reinforcing pro-social behavior.
HHS Launches New Maternal Mental Health Hotline
The Maternal Mental Health Hotline is a new, confidential, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. Those who contact the hotline can receive a range of support, including brief interventions from trained culturally and trauma-informed counselors and referrals to both community-based and telehealth providers as needed. Callers also will receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and other community resources.
Six Things You Need To Know About Music and Health
A growing body of research suggests that listening to or performing music affects the brain in ways that may help promote health and manage disease symptoms. More justification for the plethora of music videos posted in Friday Update!
Know Your Rights: Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits
This brochure gives an overview of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. It lists some common limits placed on mental health and substance use disorder benefits and services.
Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech
Aaahhhh!!! Less than 20 days!!! Well? Have you registered for the 2022 Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech summit on June 8-9th yet? Can’t make it? Wondering if you can access all of the sessions with our hundreds of speakers after June 8-9th? YES, but ONLY if you register in advance. So, you should probably get on that.
Building a More Equitable Juvenile Justice System for Everyone
Racial inequities regarding the policing of children, and the subsequent disparities in their treatment within the juvenile justice system, have been problems in this country for far too long. It is encouraging that many states and counties are not only recognizing these issues but are taking action. The CSG Justice Center is committed to providing research-driven, data-informed solutions to our partners to continue building safer and stronger communities for everyone, especially our youth.
Disruptions to School and Home Life Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021
Young people have experienced disruptions to school and home life since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. From January to June 2021, CDC conducted the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public- and private-school students in grades 9–12. ABES data were used to estimate the prevalence of disruptions and adverse experiences during the pandemic, including parental and personal job loss, homelessness, hunger, emotional or physical abuse by a parent or other adult at home, receipt of telemedicine, and difficulty completing schoolwork. Prevalence estimates are presented for all students by sex, race and ethnicity, grade, sexual identity, and difficulty completing schoolwork.
CDC Survey Finds the Pandemic Had a Big Impact on Teens’ Mental Health
According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than four in 10 teens report feeling “persistently sad or hopeless” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls were twice as likely to experience mental health troubles compared to boys. And LGBTQ students were hit the hardest. The CDC’s findings were gathered from online surveys from a sample of 7,700 US students during the first six months of 2021.
New Initiative to Define Policy Recommendations for Embedding Equity into 988
The Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity & Beacon Health Options are joining forces to create and develop an equitable crisis response for the future of behavioral health service delivery ahead of the July 2022 launch of 988.
State Policymakers Can Support Equitable School-based Telemental Health Services
This brief presents five ways state policymakers can support equitable school-based telemental health services, with recommendations based on relevant policy context, existing research, and—in some cases—feedback from interviews with five TMH providers who testified to on-the-ground experience with these interventions.
- SAMHSA Disaster/Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
- SAMHSA Incidents of Mass Violence
- SAMHSA: Tips for Talking with and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event
- CDC Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach
- CDC Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
- NCSMH Supporting Students, Staff, Families & Communities Impacted by Violence
- NIMH Helping Children & Adolescents Cope with Traumatic Events
- Talking to Children About Terrorist Attacks & School & Community Shootings in the News
- CDC Caring for Children in a Disaster: Tools & Resources
- NCTSN School Shooting Resources
- Sesame Street in Communities: Community & Gun Violence
- AAP Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events
- AAP Talking with Children About Disasters
- CDC Helping Children Cope During & After a Disaster
Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
In times of community or world-wide crisis, it’s easy to assume that young children don’t know what’s going on. But one thing’s for sure — children are very sensitive to how their parents feel. They’re keenly aware of the expressions on their parents’ faces and the tone of their voices. Children can sense when their parents are really worried, whether they’re watching the news or talking about it with others. No matter what children know about a “crisis,” it’s especially scary for children to realize that their parents are scared.
Some Scary, Confusing Images
The way that news is presented on television can be quite confusing for a young child. The same video segment may be shown over and over again through the day, as if each showing was a different event. Someone who has died turns up alive and then dies again and again. Children often become very anxious since they don’t understand much about videotape replays, closeups, and camera angles. Any televised danger seems close to home to them because the tragic scenes are taking place on the TV set in their own living room. Children can’t tell the difference between what’s close and what’s far away, what’s real and what’s pretend, or what’s new and what’s re-run.
The younger the children are, the more likely they are to be interested in scenes of close-up faces, particularly if the people are expressing some strong feelings. When there’s tragic news, the images on TV are most often much too graphic and disturbing for young children.
“Who will take care of me?”
In times of crisis, children want to know, “Who will take care of me?” They’re dependent on adults for their survival and security. They’re naturally self-centered. They need to hear very clearly that their parents are doing all they can to take care of them and to keep them safe. They also need to hear that people in the government and other grown-ups they don’t even know are working hard to keep them safe, too.
Helping Children Feel More Secure
Play is one of the important ways young children have of dealing with their concerns. Of course, playing about violent news can be scary and sometimes unsafe, so adults need to be nearby to help redirect that kind of play into nurturing themes, such as a hospital for the wounded or a pretend meal for emergency workers.
When children are scared and anxious, they might become more dependent, clingy, and afraid to go to bed at night. Whining, aggressive behavior, or toilet “accidents” may be their way of asking for more comfort from the important adults in their lives. Little by little, as the adults around them become more confident, hopeful and secure, our children probably will, too.
Turn Off the TV
When there’s something tragic in the news, many parents get concerned about what and how to tell their children. It’s even harder than usual if we’re struggling with our own powerful feelings about what has happened. Adults are sometimes surprised that their own reactions to a televised crisis are so strong, but great loss and devastation in the news often reawaken our own earlier losses and fears – even some we think we might have “forgotten”
It’s easy to allow ourselves to get drawn into watching televised news of a crisis for hours and hours; however, exposing ourselves to so many tragedies can make us feel hopeless, insecure, and even depressed. We help our children and ourselves if we’re able to limit our own television viewing. Our children need us to spend time with them – away from the frightening images on the screen.
Talking and Listening
Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to give our children all the reasons for such things as war, terrorists, abuse, murders, major fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. If they ask questions, our best answer may be to ask them, “What do you think happened?” If the answer is “I don’t know,” then the simplest reply might be something like, “I’m sad about the news, and I’m worried. But I love you, and I’m here to care for you.”
If we don’t let children know it’s okay to feel sad and scared, they may think something is wrong with them when they do feel that way. They certainly don’t need to hear all the details of what’s making us sad or scared, but if we can help them accept their own feelings as natural and normal, their feelings will be much more manageable for them.
Angry feelings are part of being human, especially when we feel powerless. One of the most important messages we can give our children is, “It’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt ourselves or others.” Besides giving children the right to their anger, we can help them find constructive things to do with their feelings. This way, we’ll be giving them useful tools that will serve them all their life, and help them to become the worlds’ future peacemakers — the world’s future “helpers.”
Helpful Hints
- Do your best to keep the television off, or at least limit how much your child sees of any news event.
- Try to keep yourself calm. Your presence can help your child feel more secure.
- Give your child extra comfort and physical affection, like hugs or snuggling up together with a favorite book. Physical comfort goes a long way towards providing inner security. That closeness can nourish you, too.
- Try to keep regular routines as normal as possible. Children and adults count on their familiar pattern of everyday life.
- Plan something that you and your child enjoy doing together, like taking a walk, going on a picnic, having some quiet time, or doing something silly. It can help to know there are simple things in life that can help us feel better, in good times and in bad.
- Even if children don’t mention what they’ve seen or heard in the news, it can help to ask what they think has happened. If parents don’t bring up the subject, children can be left with their misinterpretations. You may be really surprised at how much your child has heard from others.
- Focus attention on the helpers, like the police, firemen, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and volunteers. It’s reassuring to know there are many caring people who are doing all they can to help others in this world.
- Let your child know if you’re making a donation, going to a town meeting, writing a letter or e-mail of support, or taking some other action. It can help children to know that adults take many different active roles and that we don’t give in to helplessness in times of worldwide crisis.
What do we tell our children?
How do we reassure them of their own safety?
At The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, we’ve provided grief support groups for children, teens, young adults and their parents or adult caregivers since 1982.
Based on our experience, here are some things for adults to keep in mind as you struggle with how to talk with children following tragic events, such as natural disasters, plane crashes, or school shootings.
1. Don’t project your fears onto your children. They take their cues from the adults around them.
You can’t hear the news about children being murdered or communities devastated by natural disasters without thinking about how you’d feel if it happened to your family, friends, or hometown. The outpouring of care and empathy for the families who lost loved ones will be powerful, and…we all know it could have been our friends, our child, our family and community members who died or were injured.
Identifying with the senselessness and randomness makes us all feel more vulnerable. But we should remember that children don’t always see things the same way that adults do, and it won’t be helpful to them for us to fall apart. They need to see that we care, that we feel terrible about this tragedy, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. They will take their cues from our behavior.
It’s okay to show emotion. We can model for children that feeling sad, scared, and upset is normal after tragedies. But we don’t want to overwhelm them with our emotions, or put them in the position of having to ‘parent,’ or take care of, the adults around them. Make sure you also model taking care of yourself, by sharing with trusted and supportive adult friends, eating (and drinking) healthfully.
2. Try to limit their access to the recurring news and exposure to the tragedy over and over.
Over-exposure to the graphic and emotional news can be overwhelming for children and can cause unnecessary anxiety and fear. Some children who repeatedly watched the footage of planes crashing into the towers on 9/11 thought it was happening again and again. Some children (and some adults) may have difficulty getting graphic scenes and images out of their minds. Too much exposure can fuel their fear, so don’t let them sit and watch the news over and over. Better yet, set the example of not doing so yourself as well.
3. Understand that you can’t completely shield them from what happened.
It would be next to impossible to hide these events from children, as much as we wish we could. You might be able to shield your own child in your home, for example, by not turning on (or owning) a television, but you can’t protect your children from hearing about it from other kids. The fact is, they will hear about it, so although they don’t “need” to know about it, pretending we can shield them is magical thinking.
That said, you don’t need to give them more information than they can handle, or more than they’re asking for. A simple, “Did they talk about what happened in _____ today at school?” would be a good starter. They need to know that you’re not trying to hide the truth from them, that you’re open to talking about it, but that you’re also not forcing them to do so.
4. Model truth-telling and build trust with your children by letting them hear things, even hard things, from you directly.
Eight days after the 9/11 attacks, I was meeting in small groups with pre-school workers in New York City, talking about how to respond to the young children in their care about the events. A man asked to speak to me privately after one of the trainings, and asked for my advice around his 7-year-old daughter. For the last week, since September 12th, she had been having stomach aches and difficulty sleeping. He said it was not tied to the events of 9/11 because, “We don’t have a television.” As his story unfolded it was evident that he did not want to have to explain to his child why people would do such horrible things, a normal dilemma that we face as parents and adults. This child was experiencing physical reactions, as it turned out, not primarily because of her reaction to the events of 9/11, but because she was unable to share her fears and concerns and questions in her own home, faced with her parents’ denial.
Here are some principles to keep in mind as you talk with children:
1. There is no one typical reaction one can or should expect from children.
Their responses will vary all over the ‘emotional’ map, from seeming disinterest to nightmares, eating issues, and anxiety. How any specific child will respond will depend on their age, previous experience with death and loss, and their personality style. Fearful children will tend to worry; quiet children may keep their feelings to themselves; those who want to appear unfazed may exhibit a sense of bravado or lack of caring. Of course, children directly affected – those who had a family member die; those who witnessed the tragedy; those who had friends die – will tend to have longer-term reactions and needs. Watch for changes in behavior, or concerning trends. While it would be normal to have heightened anxiety and sleeplessness, any concerning behavior or troubling symptoms should be taken seriously, and if warranted, professional help sought.
2. Many children will have an increased sense of fear about their safety.
Understandably. So will many adults. After a shooting at an Oregon mall in December 2012, the news outlets were filled with people who said they’d never take their children there again. Others said they’d return as soon as it opened in order to support the stores and employees who had experienced the traumatic events, and whose livelihoods were going to suffer as a result of the several day closure. Some runners in the Boston Marathon vowed to return; others said they would never do so again.
While we can’t guarantee to our children that nothing bad will ever happen to them, we can provide assurance that these events are relatively rare, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. Children may have many questions about the events, particularly about natural disasters. Answer their questions with language that fits their developmental stage. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question. If it’s a question that might have an answer, offer to look up more information. You can also ask children what they think the answer is as they often have thoughts and ideas they want to share with you. In the case of natural disasters, if your child is fearful of something like that happening in your community, talk with them about the safety plan that you have in place for your family and home. You can also look into what community safety measures are in place and whatever elements are relevant with your children. Many children will be reassured knowing that there are specific, tangible things they and your family can do if something occurs. Some examples include, picking a meeting place, keeping flashlights in every bedroom, talking about where you will keep emergency water and food.
3. Children want, need, and deserve the truth.
In over 30 years of providing grief support to thousands of children and teens at The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, we have never heard a child say, “I’m glad I was lied to.” Many, however, struggle with anger and lack of trust toward parents or other adults who lied to them. When we don’t tell the truth, they learn that we cannot be trusted. As difficult as it can be at times, and as horrendous as the truth may be, children want, need, and deserve the truth. Being able to talk openly and honestly with your children about tragic events and other losses, creates a foundation of trust, enabling them to come to you in the future with their questions, fears, and concerns.
How race-related stress affects you and your relationship with your child
What effect does racism have on your health and well-being?
Not only does racism impact you as a parent, it can also impact how you interact with your children. Experiences of racism build on each other and can chip away at your emotional, physical and spiritual resources as a parent, contributing to race-related stress. Race-related stress can make it hard to have the space needed to take care of yourself as a parent, which reduces the emotional space you need to adequately take care of your children.
Physical Effects
Physical Effects can include increased hypertension, illness and risky behaviors such as substance use.
Emotional Effects
Emotional effects can include depression, anxiety, anger, irritability and aggression.
Spiritual Effects
Spiritual effects can include a decreased sense of purpose, lack of connection with the larger community, isolation from larger social groups and reduced involvement in communal activities that you enjoy.
Potential reactions to racial stress or trauma
Insecure Feelings
Feelings of shame and lack of confidence due to feeling that a situation cannot be changed.
Lack of Trust
Feeling detached or a lack of trust for others due to experiencing multiple losses or letdowns. This can make it very difficult to seek out help and to identify potential safe sources of support.
Triggers
Reminders of the event, such as particular people or situations, can also trigger strong emotional or physical responses (e.g., crying or rapid heartbeat).
Difficulty Controlling Emotions
Difficulty controlling emotional responses (going from “zero to one hundred”) can occur as the body helps you adapt to potentially unsafe situations, making you feel constantly on “alert.”
The body’s response to the experience of racism can make accessing resources to cope with the situation difficult. Race-related stress is unique in that it threatens psychological resources that are needed to cope and fulfill basic needs such as financial support, housing, access to jobs, etc.
When your body is in stress mode, it is geared up to help you and your child survive, which sometimes leads to impulsive decisions. If you live in a chronic state of stress related to racism, you can start to engage in survival coping. Survival coping can help you to deal with very hard or potentially life-threatening situations. However, if you continue to exist in this mode long-term, it can make it difficult to enjoy being in the moment with your child and can reduce your ability to feel safe and in control.
What impact can racial stress have on your parenting?
Experiencing race-related stress can also impact the quality of parenting relationships in the following ways:
Impostor syndrome
When you are exposed to racism repeatedly, you often start doubting yourself and can feel like you are an imposter in dominant culture settings or in settings where you feel as though you do not belong. Your inner thoughts might sound something like: “Am I being judged?” “Am I worthy?” “I got lucky.” “I only got this because I am Black.”
Being overly alert (hypervigilance)
Experiencing racial stress can make you more aware of potential dangers and negative experiences that can occur. This, in turn, can make the experience of parenting even more stressful. When you interact with your children, you can sometimes be reminded of negative race-related experiences that you had when you were a child. This reminder can amp up emotional responses, or hyperarousal, making it hard for you to “keep your cool” and be open to flexible problem solving.
“Helicopter parenting” (monitoring in fear)
These experiences of racism and unwarranted blame or lack of acceptance can make you want to protect your children so much, that you don’t allow them to explore in the way that they need to. You may shelter them from failures, which everyone needs to experience in order to learn how to manage everyday life. You may tend to be overly cautious or suspicious. Examples can include not allowing your children to have sleepovers or go to the park, even with your supervision.
Difficulty regulating emotions
- When your past influences your emotional state, it can affect your emotional responses to both big and minor stressors with children, such as when they misbehave. This, in turn, can lead to being overprotective or overuse of physical discipline, as a means of survival.
- For children, having parents who can keep perspective (stay cool) when children are upset, or misbehaving is very important. Likewise, it is important to stay calm when disciplining a child, otherwise discipline may go overboard. Both of these things can be hard if you are having difficulty controlling your emotions.
Avoidance
- Avoiding situations that are related to racism can be a needed strategy to survive; such as instances that may involve violence or threat to yourself or your family. Sometimes you may avoid reminders of past experiences due to the pain or discomfort they cause.
- If you find yourself avoiding strong feelings or situations with your child that bring up painful memories, it may make it hard to show affection and support for your child. It may even make it difficult to know how to provide emotional support for your child during times of stress. For instance, if your child brings up their own experience of oppression or an event in their life reminds you of something from your own childhood.
Mistrusting others
- Racism can lead to distrust or mistrust of other communities. Internalized racism is when you begin to accept negative messages about your own abilities and inherent worth by the dominant group in society.
- When you use society’s norms to judge yourself, you can feel depressed, unworthy and just not good enough. You are taught in many ways to take these feelings and paint them onto another group.
- Intra and interracial violence, contention among disenfranchised communities or color, and the way the media conveys information about people of color, contribute to this.
- This kind of coping can make you more vulnerable to racism, because on some level you may believe in racial hierarchy and difference when you belittle other groups. And when you show your children that it is right to discriminate against certain other groups, you make them more vulnerable to discrimination that they face.
Minimizing racism
- Racism is overwhelming, as is the history of violence. You are sometimes taught that accepting this and minimizing racism is the only thing you can do. But when you ignore racism, and accept powerlessness, you encourage your kids to internalize racism. This can lead to increased levels of depression, anxiety and externalizing behaviors (e.g., engaging in risky behaviors, such as alcohol or substance use).
- When you believe that you should be able to handle and manage it all without a break or without asking for help, you are at increased risk for health problems and can miss important cues about your well-being and safety.
Self-blame
Experiencing chronically unfair and dangerous discriminatory practices due to race can lead to feelings of low worth. For parents, this can also lead to a questioning of your parenting choices and abilities.
Unbalanced Racial and Ethnic Socialization (RES)
Unbalanced messaging or communication about race and ethnicity occurs when you only promote messages of mistrust, preparation for bias, or only give racial pride messages to your children.
Strategies to deal with racial stress and practice self-care.
So, what can you do to mitigate racial stress?
As parents, it is important to develop positive identities and share your cultural identities with your children. Positive cultural identity and advocacy are protective factors against racism, which can help to reduce and prevent racial stress.
There are many other ways to cope with stress and everyone has different preferences. Reducing stress can also allow you to model healthy coping strategies for your child. Here are some suggestions you can try.
- Build or access a support network
- Incorporate traditions at home
- Get some exercise
- Deep breathing
- Journal
- Limit your media intake
- Counseling/therapy
- Spirituality
- Podcast
You are not the only person dealing with race-related stress and connecting with other people with similar experiences and feelings can help you to successfully navigate racism.
- Talk with family and trusted friends specifically about racialized events that have occurred and how to handle them
- Start or join a group with others who may have had similar experiences and similar interests, like a book club that reads books by Black authors, or spend time with other African American parents who have the same concerns you do about how your children are treated at the school.
- Seek out activities that you can do with your friends or family (e.g., exercising, cooking, watching a family show or movie together, etc.)
Legislation
Much of the debate today is around gun control. Below are links to two bills currently pending in Congress.
HR 1446 Enhanced Background Check Act of 2021
HR 8 Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Resource Lists to Support Mental Health and Coping with the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
LISTS COURTESY OF THE SUICIDE PREVENTION RESCOURCE CENTER
GENERAL AUDIANCE
- NEWLY ADDED! Coping-19 – This website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ad Council provides resources for people dealing with anxiety, depression, financial uncertainty, grief, isolation, prejudice, or sleeplessness. It also provides resources on healthy living topics such as exercise, nutrition, and meditation, family activities, and medical guidance.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Stress and Coping – This web page contains basic guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on managing mental health stressors during COVID-19. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health: Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation during an Infectious Disease Outbreak – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides information on typical reactions to social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, and ways to take care of oneself. The sheet also provides a list of hotlines and other resources for obtaining help.
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Considerations during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This information sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO) contains suggestions for coping with COVID-19 for the general population and specific groups including health care workers, caretakers of children and older adults, and people living in isolation.
- Taking Care of Your Mental Health in the Face of Uncertainty – This blog post from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) provides five suggestions for coping with the uncertainty due to COVID-19. Available in Spanish.
- Helpful Thinking during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing negative thoughts and feelings you may be having and helpful thoughts you can try instead to feel more positive. The categories included are concerns about safety, feeling unable to cope, helplessness, guilt, and anger. Available in Spanish.
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Grief and Loss – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains information on coping with grief and loss, including loss of a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic, loss due to changes in daily routines and ways of life, and helping children cope with grief. Available in other languages, including Spanish, by clicking the button “Languages” under the title.
- Coronavirus Anxiety: Helpful Expert Tips and Resources– This web page, updated daily by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), contains links to a wide variety of resources for coping with general anxiety and some specific anxiety disorders during COVID-19, including articles, information sheets, blog posts, and videos.
- Coping with Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks– This web page from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides bulleted lists of behavioral, physical, emotional, and mental responses that are common signs of stress and anxiety during infectious disease pandemics like COVID-19. It also includes ways to relieve the stress.
- Tips for Coping with Coronavirus Stress – This sheet from PsychAlive provides suggestions for self-care to help cope with stress during COVID-19, including mindfulness meditation; a breathing exercise; practicing self-compassion, optimism, and gratitude; and connecting with other people and with nature.
- How to Support a Loved One Going through a Tough Time during COVID-19 – This web page from Mental Health First Aid provides tips for reaching out to someone who may need emotional support.
- Tips for Supporting Others during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD contains a table listing simple ways to talk with others that show support. It includes examples of statements and questions that can be adapted for the specific person and situation. Available in Spanish.
- Managing Family Conflict While Home during COVID-19: Intimate Partners – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides strategies that may help partners manage conflict during periods of confinement at home.
- Coronavirus: Building Mental Health Resilience – This blog post from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) suggests ways to build resilience, which means learning healthy ways to adapt and cope with adversity and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses growing emotionally beyond simply coping.
- Building Resiliency to Isolation & Loneliness: How to Increase Our Resiliency during the COVID-19 Crisis (Archived Webinar)– This webinar from Mental Health America enables participants to learn the impact of crisis situations, loneliness, and isolation; understand what resiliency is and where it comes from; and learn practical and achievable ways to increase one’s resiliency.
- Managing Our Fears and Stress: Strategies to Cultivate Emotional Agility (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Susan David, PhD, discusses how to cultivate agility in coping with our emotions within ourselves and organizations in the context of the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
- Responding to COVID-19: Provider Well-Being – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address the well-being of mental health providers. It includes webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- Responding to COVID-19: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Child Abuse – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that can help mental health providers address IPV and child abuse with the clients they serve. It includes webinars and print materials.
- Treating Suicidal Patients during COVID-19: Best Practices and Telehealth (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), experts discuss three best practices for treating people at risk of suicide that can be delivered effectively via telehealth: safety plans, treatment that directly targets suicidal thoughts, and DBT-based self-help skills. Also available is a series of three brief videos made from this webinar.
- Safe Suicide Care During a Pandemic – This web page from the Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) contains descriptions of, and links to, resources for health care leaders and mental health professionals on providing safe suicide care.
- Trauma Informed Clinical Care during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar Series) – This series of four webinars for mental health clinicians from the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide includes lessons learned from previous mass trauma events translated into practical suggestions for the current pandemic. The webinars are:
- Part 1: Unpacking the Impact of COVID-19 Trauma
- Part 2: Supporting People through Grief and Trauma
- Part 3: Understanding Suicide Risk during COVID-19
- Part 4: Surviving and Thriving—Finding Your Own Path to Wisdom and Healing
- For Mental Health Providers: Working with Patients Affected by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on the challenges patients may face during COVID-19, how to talk with patients in the context of COVID-19, ways to modify treatment, and a framework to help patients manage their reactions related to COVID-19.
- Tools for Behavioral Health Professionals During a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for behavioral health professionals on maintaining wellness, recognizing signs of burnout, supporting staff, and using telehealth.
- Supportive Practices for Mental Health Professionals During Pandemic-Related Social Distancing – This sheet from the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) contains information on challenges mental health professionals face with social distancing, and suggestions for how to support oneself and work with supervisees.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Crisis Services (Part 2): Culturally Responsive Factors in COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – In the context of COVID-19, this webinar from the Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) discusses how cultural factors impact the experience of a crisis, cultural idioms of distress, the benefits and challenges of telehealth, and the Cultural Formulation Interview techniques to effectively use in telehealth.
- Taking Care of Patients During the Coronavirus Outbreak: A Guide for Psychiatrists – This sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) provides information on some common psychological and behavioral responses to expect and suggestions for how to work with patients.
- Telehealth Tips: Managing Suicidal Clients During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This information sheet from the Center for Practice Innovations at Columbia Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute provides tips for evaluating and treating people who are suicidal using telehealth. It also includes steps and a template for developing a safety plan.
- Notification of Enforcement Discretion on Telehealth Remote Communications during COVID-19 Nationwide Public Health Emergency – This web page from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides information on what is now allowed for the use of telehealth in relation to the regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Telepsychiatry in the Era of COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar by SMI Adviser provides an overview of how to use telemental health and video visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes information on the legal, clinical, cultural, and practical aspects of using technology to deliver care. It covers topics such as which telemental health platform to use, licensure, consent, online prescribing, and billing.
- COVID-19 Tips: Building Rapport with Youth via Telehealth – This article by Van Dyk, et al. at the UCLA Pediatric Psychology Consultation Liaison Service provides tips on how to introduce telehealth to children and adolescents, build rapport with them, and keep them engaged.
HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS
- Emergency Responders: Tips for Taking Care of Yourself – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides signs of burnout and secondary traumatic stress as well as self-care techniques and tips for setting up a buddy system with another emergency responder for mutual support.
- Strategies to Support the Health and Well-Being of Clinicians During the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) includes strategies health care leaders and managers can use to support their clinical staff and self-care strategies for clinicians.
- Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This sheet from the National Center for PTSD provides information on possible causes of stress for health care workers during COVID-19, ways to manage stress through preparedness, and ways to cope with stress during the pandemic and its aftermath.
- Tips for Healthcare Professionals: Coping with Stress and Compassion Fatigue – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on stress and signs of distress and compassion fatigue after a disaster. It describes strategies to cope and enhance resilience, including instructions for relaxation exercises, and lists resources for more information and support.
- Tips for Disaster Responders: Preventing and Managing Stress – This sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) contains information on preparing for a disaster and coping during and after it. Suggestions for planning with loved ones are included.
- First Responders First: Sustaining Yourself During the Coronavirus Crisis – This tip sheet from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Thrive Global provides small steps that first responders can take throughout their work day as well as outside of work to manage stress and maintain well-being.
- Caring for Yourself & Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Managing Healthcare Workers’ Stress (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, discusses ways that health care workers can manage stress—theirs and others’—during COVID-19. It is accompanied by handouts for health and mental health care providers on managing stress and on using the seven steps of Stress First Aid for self-care and peer support.
- Leading with Compassion: Supporting Healthcare Workers in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, of the UVA School of Nursing discuss what health care leaders can do to support their teams during the COVID-19 crisis. It is accompanied by four handouts for health care leaders.
- Caring with Compassion: Supporting Patients and Families in a Crisis (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Schwartz Center, Patricia Watson, PhD, and Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, discuss strategies health care professionals can use to address the five essential human needs that support recovery from adversity and stress. They also explain how to use the Stress First Aid framework to assess for stress injury, discuss patient needs, and make referrals to other supports.
- Supporting a Family Member Who Is a Health Care Worker – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of a family member who is a health care worker. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
- Supporting the Children and Teens of Health Care Workers – This information sheet from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers practical guidance for addressing the emotional needs of children and teens of health care workers. It is modeled on the NOVA Crisis Response Program.
COMMUNITY LEADERS
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Reducing Stigma – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides basic information about stigma related to COVID-19 and ways that public health officials and other community leaders can reduce it.
- Social Stigma Associated with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – This information sheet from several organizations including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) explains what social stigma is, why it is occurring so much with COVID-19, its impact, and how to address it. The sheet suggests preferred language and messages to use when talking about COVID-19 and provides examples of actions that can counter stigmatizing attitudes.
- For Providers and Community Leaders: Helping People Manage Stress Associated with the COVID-19 Virus Outbreak – This web page from the National Center for PTSD offers five key principles for community leaders, health care providers, and others addressing the public’s psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as steps they can take to help.
- Psychological Effects of Quarantine During the Coronavirus Outbreak: What Public Health Leaders Need to Know – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes some of the factors relevant to senior public health officials, such as local, state, and tribal health authorities, in addressing the psychological effects related to quarantine.
- Mental Health and Behavioral Guidelines for Preparedness and Response to Coronavirus and other Emerging Infectious Outbreaks – This information sheet from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) describes steps that public health officials and other community leaders can take to address the coronavirus pandemic during the phases of preparedness, early pandemic response, later response and recovery, and mental health intervention planning.
- How Leaders Can Maximize Trust and Minimize Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This web page from the American Psychological Association (APA) provides suggestions for how leaders, including government officials, business managers, educators, and parents, can maximize their ability to communicate well during COVID-19.
- The Critical Role of Prevention During and Post Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Great Lakes PTTC is a starting point for a regional dialogue as organizations start preparing for recovery from the many effects of COVID-19 including on substance misuse, mental health, suicide, and domestic violence, and the important role that prevention professionals will play in the response.
AMERICAN INDIANS AND ALASKA NATIVES
- NEWLY ADDED! Staying Safe and Mentally Well During COVID-19 – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides suggestions for how to relieve stress that are tailored for American Indian and Alaska Native people.
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19 and Anxiety (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on anxiety, how feelings of anxiety may be heightened during the pandemic, resources and coping mechanisms that may help, and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- NEWLY ADDED! Suicidality and COVID-19: How to Help (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Indian Health Board includes general background on suicide in Indian Country; intervention and prevention; what is unique about COVID-19 that may contribute to suicide risk; resources and suggestions that may help; and questions and answers with attendees. This webinar is designed for community members, Tribal health and behavioral health professionals, Tribal leaders, and partners.
- Physically Distant but Socially Close: Indigenous Resilience and COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute suggests adaptations of some common native cultural practices so that they can be safe and fulfilling. These include ways of greetings each other, enjoying food and community, dancing, and engaging in ceremony.
- Managing Stress during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on the signs of stress, how to manage stress, and support for people at risk of violence in the home.
- A Historical Trauma-informed Approach to COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute shares ways that urban Indian organizations can support the people they serve, their staff, and their communities experiencing both current and historical trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Recommendations for Tribal Ceremonies and Gatherings during the COVID-19 Outbreak – This web page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains recommendations to assist in reducing the spread of COVID-19 during tribal ceremonies and practices such as sweat lodges, social gatherings, and seasonal ceremonies. These events are important in protecting the health and well-being of tribal members.
- Elder Mental Health During COVID-19 – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health provides information on ways to support American Indian elders during COVID-19. It includes suggestions for managing stress, activities to help maintain well-being, ways to support elders with medical needs, and steps residential care facilities can take to ensure elders’ safety.
- Tips for Health and Wellness for Elders – This information sheet from the National Indian Health Board for Native elders contains health and wellness tips to help cope with COVID-19.
- Stress and Anxiety Management for Community Health Workers during Coronavirus – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on the signs of stress and anxiety and how to cope with them.
- Positive Parenting during COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – This sheet from the Center for American Indian Health contains information on how parents can reduce their stress and how to help their children cope during COVID-19.
- Talking to Kids about Coronavirus (COVID-19) – This information sheet from the Center for American Indian Health for parents and other family members provides tips for talking with kids about COVID-19, including how to get the conversation started.
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITES
- NEWLY ADDED! Redefining the Sophomore Slump during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar). This webinar from Kognito is a panel discussion with three higher education leaders who discuss what they are expecting when students return to campus, the types of conversations campus members may need to have with students and the support they can provide as students adjust to a new normal given what they have experienced during COVID-19, including grief, loneliness, uncertainty, and fear.
- Students Struggle but Don’t Seek Colleges’ Help – This article from Inside Higher Ed describes the low use of college counseling services compared to student needs, the possible reasons, and where else students are getting support. Then it provides 12 suggestions for improving college mental health services now and after the pandemic.
- Supporting Vulnerable Campus Populations during the COVID-19 Pandemic – This set of guidelines from the American College Health Association (ACHA) provides information on how to support college and university populations that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and economic downturn. It covers Black, Asian, first generation/low income (FGLI), international, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Native American, undocumented students, and students with disabilities.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for Higher Education Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has suggestions for how higher education professionals can help their students and links to other resources.
- Tips to Stay Mentally Well While Working from Home– This blog post from Active Minds provides a list of tips for staying mentally well and focused while making the transition to studying or working from home.
- Mental Health Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from Active Minds provides a variety of resources for students, parents, and faculty to help support student mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Included are videos, blog posts, and webinars.
- Managing Stress During Distance Learning – How Faculty Can Support Their Students (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the Jed Foundation, expert panelists discuss how faculty can support their students during this time of distance learning, including identifying students in distress and addressing the needs of particularly vulnerable student populations.
- Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students During a Pandemic (Archived Webinar Series) – This is a series of two webinars from the Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) and Active Minds:
- Session I: Changing the Conversation about Mental Health to Support College Students during a Pandemic – This session focuses on the impact the pandemic is having on college students’ mental health and well-being and ways to address their needs.
- Session II: Campus Mental Health: How Do We Come Back to the New Normal? – This session covers what coming back to the “new normal” will look like for college students’ as they return to campus and how campuses can effectively support the return of students in providing a place for recovery and education.
SCHOOLS
- NEWLY ADDED! COVID-19: Resource Center: Guidance and Supports This part of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website includes links to numerous resources under the categories of “Return to School,” “Crisis & Mental Health,” “Families & Educators,” and “Service Delivery & Special Education.”
- NEWLY ADDED! Behavioral Health Impacts During & After COVID-19: What to Expect and Ways to Prepare for the Return to In-Person Learning This short guide from the Northwest MHTTC provides information on what to expect as students return to school and ways to prepare at the staff, building, and district levels. It can help school and district teams consider a range of strategies and supports for students, families, and staff.
- NEWLY ADDED! Five Ways to Talk with Students Returning After Pandemic Closures This brief guide from Kognito provides information and five specific examples of how educators can have the most helpful one-to-one conversations with students when trying to understand what’s underlying their behavior.
- CASEL Cares Initiative COVID-19 Resources – This webpage from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) contains guidelines for educators, parents, and caregivers with four focus areas, and a large list of resources on social and emotional learning for educators.
- Creating Positive Learning Environments: Recommendations and Resources to Support the Social Emotional Well-being of Students, Staff, and Families – This short report offers guidance compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on how to support the social emotional learning and mental and behavioral health needs of students and staff as they prepare for the return to school.
- COVID19K12Counseling.org – This website from the California Association of School Counselors and Wisconsin School Counselors Association provides information and links to resources for administrators, teachers, school-based mental health service providers, caregivers, and students from pre-K through 12th grade. Topics include school reopening, mental health, college and career, anti-racism and equity, and special populations.
- COVID-19 Resource Guide for High School Professionals – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist high school professionals in helping their students cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Responding to COVID-19: School Mental Health – This section of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s (MTTHC) website has a list of resources that address educator well-being and a list of other COVID-related school mental health resources. Both lists include webinars, presentations, toolkits, and information sheets.
- COVID-19 Resources – This web page from the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) provides many resources on mental health and coping, with sections specifically for school staff and administrators and for students and families. It also has a section on technology to support school mental health, and a webinar for school mental health clinicians on using telemental health to provide services and support to students and families.
- Trauma-Informed School Strategies during COVID-19 – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides specific guidance for educators, school staff, and administrators on the physical and emotional well-being of staff; creating a trauma-informed learning environment; identifying, assessing, and treating traumatic stress; trauma education; partnerships with students and families; cultural responsiveness, emergency management and crisis response; and school discipline.
- Supporting Students Experiencing Trauma During the COVID-19 Pandemic – This blog from the Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia (REL Appalachia) lists common trauma symptoms and provides preventive strategies that can be used virtually to create a safe and predictable environment, build relationships, and help students with self-regulation. It also provides links to other resources to use in supporting students.
- Tools for Educators during a Public Health Crisis – This sheet from the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) provides information for educators on self-care, signs of distress, and strategies for working parents and students.
- School Staff Self-Care during COVID-19 – This sheet from the Association of California School Administrators provides information on the importance of self-care for educators and strategies for self-care, including creativity and mindfulness.
- How to Cope with Uncertainty: Safety, Predictability, Control (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations and Riverside Trauma Center provides school personnel with information on how to cope with the uncertainty of COVID-19 using a framework of safety, predictability, and control. It offers tips on how to increase your sense of control in your life and how to help students cope.
- Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention during COVID-19: What School-Based Staff Need to Know (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the School-Based Health Alliance and the National Center for School Mental Health provides information and resources to support school staff as they manage current or emerging suicidal thoughts and behaviors in students during COVID-19. It covers safety planning, identifying and responding to youth who may be at risk, and postvention.
PARENTS AND CARE GIVERS
- EWLY ADDED! COVID-19 Resource Guide for Parents and Guardians – This webpage from the Jed Foundation has links to resources to assist parents and guardians in helping themselves and their teenage and young adult children cope with the mental health effects of COVID-19.
- Talking with Children: Tips for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers during Infectious Disease Outbreaks – This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides caregivers, parents, and teachers with information on reactions children and youth may have during an infectious disease outbreak and how to support them. Some of the information is tailored for different age groups.
- Helping Children Cope Emotionally with the Coronavirus – This web page from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS) provides parents with specific suggestions for helping children cope with COVID-19.
- Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – This sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) provides parents and caregivers with information related to the health and mental health aspects of coping with COVID-19. It includes a list by age groups of some typical reactions and ways to help children cope.
- Countering COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Stigma and Racism: Tips for Parents and Caregivers - This information sheet from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) contains tips for parents and caregivers on addressing stigma and racism related to COVID-19 with children. It also provides suggestions to help children feel safe and deal with stigma they may encounter.
- COVID-19: Five Helpful Responses for Families – This web page from Conscious Discipline provides information on five ways to help children feel safe and connected during COVID-19. Each section includes links to activities, examples, stories, and webinars for children and parents to help incorporate the strategies.
- Supporting Families During COVID-19 – This resource list from the Child Mind Institute includes links to a large number of resources, including ones specifically for children with anxiety disorders, ADHD, autism, and PTSD. There are also links to resources relevant for all children on managing anxiety, discipline and behavior, and dealing with loss.
- How to Avoid Passing Anxiety on to Your Kids – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides information and strategies to help parents deal with their own anxiety and keep from passing it on to their children.
- Supporting Teenagers and Young Adults During the Coronavirus Crisis – This web page from the Child Mind Institute provides tips specifically for parenting teenagers and young adults home from college during the pandemic.
- Teachers and Parents: Working Together to Make Distance Learning Work – This web page from Mental Health America briefly describes ways that parents and teachers can work together to increase the success of distance/virtual learning for school-age students.
- Co-Parenting during a Pandemic – This information sheet from Parents Lead.org contains a checklist with items that can help in adjusting co-parenting plans. It also provides information on what to do if one parent thinks the other parent is a risk due to COVID-19
TEENAGERS
- NEWLY ADDED! Mental Health Advocacy Online – This webpage from Active Minds includes a short video of high school students sharing their experiences during COVID-19. It also has links to free self-care resources for teens and young adults and a network where student leaders can chat about promoting mental health during COVID-19.
- How to Maintain Your Social Relationships during Online School (For Kids and Teens) – This web page from Mental Health America contains ideas for teenagers and kids on how to keep up relationships with their friends when school is online.
- What Can I Do When I’m Afraid? – This web page from Mental Health America for teenagers briefly describes what fear is and some ways to deal with it.
- Teen Voices: Coping with the Pandemic – In this short video from MindWise Innovations, teens talk about the challenges they’re experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, how they’re learning to cope, and what they need from adults.
OLDER ADULTS
- Reducing Loneliness and Social Isolation among Older Adults – This sheet by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) provides information on the risk factors for and impact of loneliness and social isolation on older adults, tools to identify loneliness in older adults, and interventions and resources to reduce loneliness and isolation.
- Seven Ways to Cope with Anxiety during the Coronavirus Outbreak – This web page from AARP for older adults briefly describes seven things to do to help cope with anxiety during COVID-19. Also available in Spanish.
- COVID-19: We Must Care for Older Adults’ Mental Health – This web page from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) covers key risk factors that impact mental health and well-being in older adults and how they can be worsened by COVID-19. It also includes steps that everyone can take to support older adults during COVID-19.
- 7 Ways to Boost Your Loved One’s Morale during the Coronavirus Epidemic – This web page from AARP for loved ones of older adults briefly describes seven ways to help keep older adults engaged and decrease their feeling of isolation even when you cannot be with them in person. It includes a section with tips for thanking the staff at a care center. Also available in Spanish.
- Older Adults & Isolation during COVID-19 (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from Mental Health America for older adults and people who support them describes challenges faced by many older adults that can be worsened by COVID-19 and ways that peer support specialists can help. It also provides specific suggestions for older adults living in isolation on how they can connect with other people, including online.
- How to Introduce Seniors to Video Chatting to Combat Loneliness – This blog post from Family Matters In-Home Care provides tips for helping older adults get set up using video chatting on whatever platform is easiest for them.
- Encouraging Older Adults to Stay Active and Safe during the Coronavirus Pandemic – This web page from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) provides tips for older adults on how to safely stay active and exercise at home. Staying active can help with mental health and coping. Also included is a link to some exercise videos specifically for older adults.
- Feeling Good and Staying Connected: An Activity Guide – This guide from the California Department of Aging contains suggestions for a wide variety of activities that older adults can do safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has some worksheets to help plan activities each week.
HISPANICS/LATINOS
- NEWLY ADDED! Stress Management: The Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Latino Families This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC reviews stressors that have been intensified due to the COVID pandemic. It also identifies stress management tools that can be used for school-aged children and those who provide services to them in school-based settings. Special considerations for Latino youth mental health are also discussed.
- For information sheets in Spanish for a general audience, see the General Audience section above.
- Strategies to Support the LatinX Community – In this presentation by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network and the Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network, four presenters discuss ways substance misuse providers can support Latinos during COVID-19, including those with substance misuse problems.
- Stress Management during Quarantine for Mental Health Providers Serving Latino Clients (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC identifies stressors in the Hispanic and Latino population that can be exacerbated during quarantines for infectious disease outbreaks. It covers tools for stress management tools that mental health providers can use with their Hispanic and Latino clients. Special considerations regarding telemental health and for working with Latino youth are also provided.
- Providing Culturally Relevant Telehealth Services for Latino Populations during a Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC covers the challenges of treating Latino clients during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to assess and provide interventions to meet the needs of Latino individuals using telehealth modalities.
- Therapeutic Interventions for Hispanic and Latino Populations with Trauma Experiences: Considerations during the Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC focuses on the common treatment barriers when working with Hispanics and Latinos who are traumatized. It provides practical strategies for overcoming these barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies for trauma processing, and a concrete model for rapid crisis de-escalation.
- COVID-19 and the Impact on Intimate Partner Violence for Latinos (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including shelter in place practices and isolation, on Latino/Hispanic individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). It also covers cultural resilience and coping strategies relevant to Latino families, and ways to reduce stress and IPV.
LGBTQ
- How LGBTQ Youth Can Cope with Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19 – This blog post from The Trevor Project provides information for LGBTQ youth on what they may be experiencing and feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to manage the intense emotions that may occur.
- 9 Strategies for Quarantining in a Non-LGBTQ+ Affirming Environment – This article from the LGBTQ+ community platform, them., provides suggestions for LGBTQ+ youth on how to live in isolation with people who may not accept one’s LGBTQ identity. Therapists and crisis management experts from The Trevor Project helped compile the information.
- Queer Lives Worth Living (Archived Open Conversation) – This conversation with two staff from The Trevor Project and the president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is directed toward providers serving LGBTQ youth. The focus is how to address the needs of LGBTQ youth as they face the issues of COVID-19 and the recent increased attention on racism and police brutality.
FAITH COMMUNITIES
- Strengthening Faith Community Connectedness during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Archived Webinar) – In this webinar from the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) a diverse group of faith leaders discuss how they are using technology to strengthen connectedness virtually through holding online religious services, convening groups, and providing support to people who are struggling.
- COVID-19: Recommended Preventative Practices and FAQs for Faith-based and Community Leaders – This information sheet from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests how faith leaders can provide connection, support, ways to continue worship, and other services for their faith community and other people in their local community.
- Mental Health in a Time of COVID-19: When Trauma, Fear, and Anxiety Become Overwhelming (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from the Partnership Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helps faith and community leaders acknowledge and respond to individuals’ fear and anxiety and ask appropriate questions to consider the impact of trauma. It also suggests strategies for how leaders can respond, including a new program called Spiritual First Aid.
WORKPLACES
- EWLY ADDED! Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Unemployed Individuals, Parts 1 and 2 – This two-part webinar series from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides information on the potential impact of job loss and unemployment on mental health. It features evidence-based strategies that can be used to decrease the negative effects of unemployment on mental health and substance use.
- Employee Mental Health & Well-being During & Beyond COVID-19 – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employers can support the mental health and well-being of their employees. It includes sections on employee needs and how employers can lead and communicate well, adapt to the changes needed, and support employees in accessing care.
- Working Remotely During COVID-19: Your Mental Health & Well-Being – This sheet from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health provides information on how employees can maintain their health, mental health and well-being during COVID-19 and what managers and human resources professionals can do to support employees.
- COVID-19 Resources for Organizations and Employees – This web page from the KonTerra Group contains links to information sheets and archived and upcoming webinars on a variety of topics for managers and employees related to coping during COVID-19.
- Promoting Workplace Mental Health in The Age of COVID-19 – This blog from SHRM provides suggestions for how workplaces and employees can support employees’ mental wellness efforts during COVID-19.
- Leading during COVID-19: How Anxiety and Depression Impact Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees who are experiencing anxiety and depression, especially during COVID-19.
- What to Know about Behavioral Health for Remote and Onsite Teams (Archived Webinar) – This webinar from MindWise Innovations helps business leaders and managers understand and support their employees cope with working remotely and/or onsite during COVID-19.
COVID-19 Resource Lists from Partners of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center
- The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) has developed a list of resources on safe messaging and for some specific populations.
- The Zero Suicide Institute (ZSI) has developed a resource list for health care leaders and mental health professionals that addresses safe suicide care.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a resource list for individuals, providers, communities, and states focused on behavioral health care.
- Education Development Center (EDC) has developed a list of resources related to health, mental health, and education.
SUPPORT IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Military Survivor Helpline
Please note this program is specifically designed for survivors grieving the death of a military loved one.
Individual grief counseling is important to many survivors in our grief journeys. The opportunity to sit one-on-one with a skilled therapist who understands grief and trauma can help you work through some of the hardest parts of your loss. Finding the right fit is important, and we can help. The right grief counselor can help you discover strengths, develop your own coping skills, and help you work through questions, changes in relationships, and secondary losses.
We rely on a large network of strong community partners, and we are confident we can connect you with resources specific to your needs. Each resource has been verified and actively supports the TAPS mission. We do careful research and compile resources with love and care.
Call our military survivor helpline
800-959-TAPS (8277)
or
email info@taps.org
to be connected with grief and trauma resources.
RECOVERY SHARE NIGHT
Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:30 PM PST
About This Peer-led Support Group
Recovery Share Night allows individuals recovering from drug or alcohol addiction to take the stage and share their story with our addiction recovery community. After sharing, our sobriety meeting opens to a Q&A format, where attendees can ask the speaker questions related to their addiction and recovery story. This substance abuse support group presents a unique opportunity to get a candid account of someone’s recovery journey. Because of the open dialogue format, participants can form in-depth discussions with the audience on topics such as substance use triggers, coping skills, and ways to create healthy boundaries
To Be a Speaker, you MUST meet the following criteria:
- 6+ months of being clean and sober from drugs and alcohol
- Have an established recovery network
- Willing to share your recovery story in detail
- Willing to answer questions and respond to comments about your recovery story
IF YOU MEET THE ABOVE CRITERIA, email us at alumni.services@mountainside.com to get on the Speakers List.
**To maintain the privacy and safety of our addiction recovery community, attending this substance abuse support group for educational or research purposes is not permitted. However, you may find helpful information through our drug glossary and blog.**
Thank you for reaching out to us! Learn to Cope (LTC) is a non-profit organization that offers family-focused peer-support for parents and loved ones of those impacted by substance use disorder. LTC offers FREE weekly in person and online ZOOM meetings where participants gain education about the disease of addiction, share their experience as family members, exchange resources and most importantly share HOPE.
Virtual Meetings are held online via ZOOM and can be accessed with a computer, tablet, or phone. ZOOM links are not posted publicly therefore to attend you must fill out the Stay Connected form (in English / en español) to request more information from a Regional Manager. (please allow 24-48 hours for a response)
Online Meetings Monday through Thursday Evenings 4:00PM PST
To Attend, Follow This Link To Register
https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E347632&id=12
Dads Need Support Too – Online Peer Support Group
Resources for Families and Children Facing Tragic Events
Racial Stress – Racism – Hate Crimes
Helpful Resources to Address the Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Many thanks to Michelle Zabel, MSS, Assistant Dean, and Director, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, for compiling this list of resources in response to the horrific mass shooting in Texas earlier this week.
Helping Young People Cope With Mental Health Challenges
Vox Media’s NowThis is linking arms with Ken Burns and PBS to share an upcoming documentary titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” Scenes from the forthcoming film will be shared across NowThis social platforms throughout Mental Health Awareness Month in May. NowThis will host a live TikTok conversation about the topic, as well. The goal, Burns said, is “to get this material out to young people around the country.” The film itself will debut at the end of June on PBS.
Uplift by Youth Era: Teaching Youth Peer Support Skills
More than 500 youth signed up for the most recent Uplift event! Studied by the University of Oxford and co-designed with young adults, Uplift by Youth Era is the future of peer support. Empower a young person in your life to be who they need, and apply to join the next Uplift training in June!
Randolph “Randy” Muck September 14, 1955 to April 21, 2021 in Memoriam
On the first anniversary of his death, several of us who knew and worked with Randy write this tribute to remember and honor his impact on so many people. Randy provided much-needed leadership from within the federal government to develop and disseminate evidence-based substance use treatments designed for adolescents and their families. He was successful because he had a rare ability to connect with all the groups important to improving adolescent treatment: provider organizations, schools, juvenile justice, counselors, federal agency decision-makers, researchers, private foundations, and most importantly—adolescents and their families. He saw how these groups could align their different interests and collaborate. This, in turn, helped youth, families, and systems of care in ways that continue to have an impact.
HHS Awards Nearly $25 Million to Expand Access to School-Based Health Services
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recently announced nearly $25 million will be made available to improve and strengthen access to school-based health services in communities across the country. Awards will support local partnerships between schools and health centers to provide children and youth with the comprehensive physical and mental health care they need.
Investing in Prevention Makes Good Financial Sense
Primary prevention—including screening and intervention before negative health outcomes occur—is relatively inexpensive. The higher-risk behaviors it is designed to reduce are so costly to the healthcare system that it is staggeringly wasteful not to make sure that screening and treatment referrals are readily implemented and faithfully reimbursed by insurers and that interventions are convenient for parents and their children.
PAX Good Behavior Game
Speaking of prevention…
The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based universal preventive intervention applied by teachers in the classroom. This evidence-based practice consists of research-based strategies with origins in behavioral science, neuroscience, and cultural wisdom that operate together to improve children’s self-regulation. Teachers implement these strategies as part of their daily routines in carrying out tasks such as getting students’ attention, selecting students for tasks, transitioning from one task to the next, working as part of a team, limiting problematic behavior, and reinforcing pro-social behavior.
HHS Launches New Maternal Mental Health Hotline
The Maternal Mental Health Hotline is a new, confidential, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. Those who contact the hotline can receive a range of support, including brief interventions from trained culturally and trauma-informed counselors and referrals to both community-based and telehealth providers as needed. Callers also will receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and other community resources.
Six Things You Need To Know About Music and Health
A growing body of research suggests that listening to or performing music affects the brain in ways that may help promote health and manage disease symptoms. More justification for the plethora of music videos posted in Friday Update!
Know Your Rights: Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits
This brochure gives an overview of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. It lists some common limits placed on mental health and substance use disorder benefits and services.
Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech
Aaahhhh!!! Less than 20 days!!! Well? Have you registered for the 2022 Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech summit on June 8-9th yet? Can’t make it? Wondering if you can access all of the sessions with our hundreds of speakers after June 8-9th? YES, but ONLY if you register in advance. So, you should probably get on that.
Building a More Equitable Juvenile Justice System for Everyone
Racial inequities regarding the policing of children, and the subsequent disparities in their treatment within the juvenile justice system, have been problems in this country for far too long. It is encouraging that many states and counties are not only recognizing these issues but are taking action. The CSG Justice Center is committed to providing research-driven, data-informed solutions to our partners to continue building safer and stronger communities for everyone, especially our youth.
Disruptions to School and Home Life Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021
Young people have experienced disruptions to school and home life since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. From January to June 2021, CDC conducted the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public- and private-school students in grades 9–12. ABES data were used to estimate the prevalence of disruptions and adverse experiences during the pandemic, including parental and personal job loss, homelessness, hunger, emotional or physical abuse by a parent or other adult at home, receipt of telemedicine, and difficulty completing schoolwork. Prevalence estimates are presented for all students by sex, race and ethnicity, grade, sexual identity, and difficulty completing schoolwork.
CDC Survey Finds the Pandemic Had a Big Impact on Teens’ Mental Health
According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than four in 10 teens report feeling “persistently sad or hopeless” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls were twice as likely to experience mental health troubles compared to boys. And LGBTQ students were hit the hardest. The CDC’s findings were gathered from online surveys from a sample of 7,700 US students during the first six months of 2021.
New Initiative to Define Policy Recommendations for Embedding Equity into 988
The Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity & Beacon Health Options are joining forces to create and develop an equitable crisis response for the future of behavioral health service delivery ahead of the July 2022 launch of 988.
State Policymakers Can Support Equitable School-based Telemental Health Services
This brief presents five ways state policymakers can support equitable school-based telemental health services, with recommendations based on relevant policy context, existing research, and—in some cases—feedback from interviews with five TMH providers who testified to on-the-ground experience with these interventions.
- SAMHSA Disaster/Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
- SAMHSA Incidents of Mass Violence
- SAMHSA: Tips for Talking with and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event
- CDC Infographic: 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach
- CDC Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
- NCSMH Supporting Students, Staff, Families & Communities Impacted by Violence
- NIMH Helping Children & Adolescents Cope with Traumatic Events
- Talking to Children About Terrorist Attacks & School & Community Shootings in the News
- CDC Caring for Children in a Disaster: Tools & Resources
- NCTSN School Shooting Resources
- Sesame Street in Communities: Community & Gun Violence
- AAP Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events
- AAP Talking with Children About Disasters
- CDC Helping Children Cope During & After a Disaster
Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
In times of community or world-wide crisis, it’s easy to assume that young children don’t know what’s going on. But one thing’s for sure — children are very sensitive to how their parents feel. They’re keenly aware of the expressions on their parents’ faces and the tone of their voices. Children can sense when their parents are really worried, whether they’re watching the news or talking about it with others. No matter what children know about a “crisis,” it’s especially scary for children to realize that their parents are scared.
Some Scary, Confusing Images
The way that news is presented on television can be quite confusing for a young child. The same video segment may be shown over and over again through the day, as if each showing was a different event. Someone who has died turns up alive and then dies again and again. Children often become very anxious since they don’t understand much about videotape replays, closeups, and camera angles. Any televised danger seems close to home to them because the tragic scenes are taking place on the TV set in their own living room. Children can’t tell the difference between what’s close and what’s far away, what’s real and what’s pretend, or what’s new and what’s re-run.
The younger the children are, the more likely they are to be interested in scenes of close-up faces, particularly if the people are expressing some strong feelings. When there’s tragic news, the images on TV are most often much too graphic and disturbing for young children.
“Who will take care of me?”
In times of crisis, children want to know, “Who will take care of me?” They’re dependent on adults for their survival and security. They’re naturally self-centered. They need to hear very clearly that their parents are doing all they can to take care of them and to keep them safe. They also need to hear that people in the government and other grown-ups they don’t even know are working hard to keep them safe, too.
Helping Children Feel More Secure
Play is one of the important ways young children have of dealing with their concerns. Of course, playing about violent news can be scary and sometimes unsafe, so adults need to be nearby to help redirect that kind of play into nurturing themes, such as a hospital for the wounded or a pretend meal for emergency workers.
When children are scared and anxious, they might become more dependent, clingy, and afraid to go to bed at night. Whining, aggressive behavior, or toilet “accidents” may be their way of asking for more comfort from the important adults in their lives. Little by little, as the adults around them become more confident, hopeful and secure, our children probably will, too.
Turn Off the TV
When there’s something tragic in the news, many parents get concerned about what and how to tell their children. It’s even harder than usual if we’re struggling with our own powerful feelings about what has happened. Adults are sometimes surprised that their own reactions to a televised crisis are so strong, but great loss and devastation in the news often reawaken our own earlier losses and fears – even some we think we might have “forgotten”
It’s easy to allow ourselves to get drawn into watching televised news of a crisis for hours and hours; however, exposing ourselves to so many tragedies can make us feel hopeless, insecure, and even depressed. We help our children and ourselves if we’re able to limit our own television viewing. Our children need us to spend time with them – away from the frightening images on the screen.
Talking and Listening
Even if we wanted to, it would be impossible to give our children all the reasons for such things as war, terrorists, abuse, murders, major fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. If they ask questions, our best answer may be to ask them, “What do you think happened?” If the answer is “I don’t know,” then the simplest reply might be something like, “I’m sad about the news, and I’m worried. But I love you, and I’m here to care for you.”
If we don’t let children know it’s okay to feel sad and scared, they may think something is wrong with them when they do feel that way. They certainly don’t need to hear all the details of what’s making us sad or scared, but if we can help them accept their own feelings as natural and normal, their feelings will be much more manageable for them.
Angry feelings are part of being human, especially when we feel powerless. One of the most important messages we can give our children is, “It’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt ourselves or others.” Besides giving children the right to their anger, we can help them find constructive things to do with their feelings. This way, we’ll be giving them useful tools that will serve them all their life, and help them to become the worlds’ future peacemakers — the world’s future “helpers.”
Helpful Hints
- Do your best to keep the television off, or at least limit how much your child sees of any news event.
- Try to keep yourself calm. Your presence can help your child feel more secure.
- Give your child extra comfort and physical affection, like hugs or snuggling up together with a favorite book. Physical comfort goes a long way towards providing inner security. That closeness can nourish you, too.
- Try to keep regular routines as normal as possible. Children and adults count on their familiar pattern of everyday life.
- Plan something that you and your child enjoy doing together, like taking a walk, going on a picnic, having some quiet time, or doing something silly. It can help to know there are simple things in life that can help us feel better, in good times and in bad.
- Even if children don’t mention what they’ve seen or heard in the news, it can help to ask what they think has happened. If parents don’t bring up the subject, children can be left with their misinterpretations. You may be really surprised at how much your child has heard from others.
- Focus attention on the helpers, like the police, firemen, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and volunteers. It’s reassuring to know there are many caring people who are doing all they can to help others in this world.
- Let your child know if you’re making a donation, going to a town meeting, writing a letter or e-mail of support, or taking some other action. It can help children to know that adults take many different active roles and that we don’t give in to helplessness in times of worldwide crisis.
What do we tell our children?
How do we reassure them of their own safety?
At The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, we’ve provided grief support groups for children, teens, young adults and their parents or adult caregivers since 1982.
Based on our experience, here are some things for adults to keep in mind as you struggle with how to talk with children following tragic events, such as natural disasters, plane crashes, or school shootings.
1. Don’t project your fears onto your children. They take their cues from the adults around them.
You can’t hear the news about children being murdered or communities devastated by natural disasters without thinking about how you’d feel if it happened to your family, friends, or hometown. The outpouring of care and empathy for the families who lost loved ones will be powerful, and…we all know it could have been our friends, our child, our family and community members who died or were injured.
Identifying with the senselessness and randomness makes us all feel more vulnerable. But we should remember that children don’t always see things the same way that adults do, and it won’t be helpful to them for us to fall apart. They need to see that we care, that we feel terrible about this tragedy, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. They will take their cues from our behavior.
It’s okay to show emotion. We can model for children that feeling sad, scared, and upset is normal after tragedies. But we don’t want to overwhelm them with our emotions, or put them in the position of having to ‘parent,’ or take care of, the adults around them. Make sure you also model taking care of yourself, by sharing with trusted and supportive adult friends, eating (and drinking) healthfully.
2. Try to limit their access to the recurring news and exposure to the tragedy over and over.
Over-exposure to the graphic and emotional news can be overwhelming for children and can cause unnecessary anxiety and fear. Some children who repeatedly watched the footage of planes crashing into the towers on 9/11 thought it was happening again and again. Some children (and some adults) may have difficulty getting graphic scenes and images out of their minds. Too much exposure can fuel their fear, so don’t let them sit and watch the news over and over. Better yet, set the example of not doing so yourself as well.
3. Understand that you can’t completely shield them from what happened.
It would be next to impossible to hide these events from children, as much as we wish we could. You might be able to shield your own child in your home, for example, by not turning on (or owning) a television, but you can’t protect your children from hearing about it from other kids. The fact is, they will hear about it, so although they don’t “need” to know about it, pretending we can shield them is magical thinking.
That said, you don’t need to give them more information than they can handle, or more than they’re asking for. A simple, “Did they talk about what happened in _____ today at school?” would be a good starter. They need to know that you’re not trying to hide the truth from them, that you’re open to talking about it, but that you’re also not forcing them to do so.
4. Model truth-telling and build trust with your children by letting them hear things, even hard things, from you directly.
Eight days after the 9/11 attacks, I was meeting in small groups with pre-school workers in New York City, talking about how to respond to the young children in their care about the events. A man asked to speak to me privately after one of the trainings, and asked for my advice around his 7-year-old daughter. For the last week, since September 12th, she had been having stomach aches and difficulty sleeping. He said it was not tied to the events of 9/11 because, “We don’t have a television.” As his story unfolded it was evident that he did not want to have to explain to his child why people would do such horrible things, a normal dilemma that we face as parents and adults. This child was experiencing physical reactions, as it turned out, not primarily because of her reaction to the events of 9/11, but because she was unable to share her fears and concerns and questions in her own home, faced with her parents’ denial.
Here are some principles to keep in mind as you talk with children:
1. There is no one typical reaction one can or should expect from children.
Their responses will vary all over the ‘emotional’ map, from seeming disinterest to nightmares, eating issues, and anxiety. How any specific child will respond will depend on their age, previous experience with death and loss, and their personality style. Fearful children will tend to worry; quiet children may keep their feelings to themselves; those who want to appear unfazed may exhibit a sense of bravado or lack of caring. Of course, children directly affected – those who had a family member die; those who witnessed the tragedy; those who had friends die – will tend to have longer-term reactions and needs. Watch for changes in behavior, or concerning trends. While it would be normal to have heightened anxiety and sleeplessness, any concerning behavior or troubling symptoms should be taken seriously, and if warranted, professional help sought.
2. Many children will have an increased sense of fear about their safety.
Understandably. So will many adults. After a shooting at an Oregon mall in December 2012, the news outlets were filled with people who said they’d never take their children there again. Others said they’d return as soon as it opened in order to support the stores and employees who had experienced the traumatic events, and whose livelihoods were going to suffer as a result of the several day closure. Some runners in the Boston Marathon vowed to return; others said they would never do so again.
While we can’t guarantee to our children that nothing bad will ever happen to them, we can provide assurance that these events are relatively rare, and that we will do everything we can to keep them safe. Children may have many questions about the events, particularly about natural disasters. Answer their questions with language that fits their developmental stage. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to a question. If it’s a question that might have an answer, offer to look up more information. You can also ask children what they think the answer is as they often have thoughts and ideas they want to share with you. In the case of natural disasters, if your child is fearful of something like that happening in your community, talk with them about the safety plan that you have in place for your family and home. You can also look into what community safety measures are in place and whatever elements are relevant with your children. Many children will be reassured knowing that there are specific, tangible things they and your family can do if something occurs. Some examples include, picking a meeting place, keeping flashlights in every bedroom, talking about where you will keep emergency water and food.
3. Children want, need, and deserve the truth.
In over 30 years of providing grief support to thousands of children and teens at The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, we have never heard a child say, “I’m glad I was lied to.” Many, however, struggle with anger and lack of trust toward parents or other adults who lied to them. When we don’t tell the truth, they learn that we cannot be trusted. As difficult as it can be at times, and as horrendous as the truth may be, children want, need, and deserve the truth. Being able to talk openly and honestly with your children about tragic events and other losses, creates a foundation of trust, enabling them to come to you in the future with their questions, fears, and concerns.
How race-related stress affects you and your relationship with your child
What effect does racism have on your health and well-being?
Not only does racism impact you as a parent, it can also impact how you interact with your children. Experiences of racism build on each other and can chip away at your emotional, physical and spiritual resources as a parent, contributing to race-related stress. Race-related stress can make it hard to have the space needed to take care of yourself as a parent, which reduces the emotional space you need to adequately take care of your children.
Physical Effects
Physical Effects can include increased hypertension, illness and risky behaviors such as substance use.
Emotional Effects
Emotional effects can include depression, anxiety, anger, irritability and aggression.
Spiritual Effects
Spiritual effects can include a decreased sense of purpose, lack of connection with the larger community, isolation from larger social groups and reduced involvement in communal activities that you enjoy.
Potential reactions to racial stress or trauma
Insecure Feelings
Feelings of shame and lack of confidence due to feeling that a situation cannot be changed.
Lack of Trust
Feeling detached or a lack of trust for others due to experiencing multiple losses or letdowns. This can make it very difficult to seek out help and to identify potential safe sources of support.
Triggers
Reminders of the event, such as particular people or situations, can also trigger strong emotional or physical responses (e.g., crying or rapid heartbeat).
Difficulty Controlling Emotions
Difficulty controlling emotional responses (going from “zero to one hundred”) can occur as the body helps you adapt to potentially unsafe situations, making you feel constantly on “alert.”
The body’s response to the experience of racism can make accessing resources to cope with the situation difficult. Race-related stress is unique in that it threatens psychological resources that are needed to cope and fulfill basic needs such as financial support, housing, access to jobs, etc.
When your body is in stress mode, it is geared up to help you and your child survive, which sometimes leads to impulsive decisions. If you live in a chronic state of stress related to racism, you can start to engage in survival coping. Survival coping can help you to deal with very hard or potentially life-threatening situations. However, if you continue to exist in this mode long-term, it can make it difficult to enjoy being in the moment with your child and can reduce your ability to feel safe and in control.