Mental Health

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Our latest Q&A is all about weed and drug-taking. We’ve seen a rise in concerns from parents and teens about use of weed, and worries about county lines. We brought together a group of brilliant experts: Carl Scott, a youth worker from Reboot Sussex; Toby Chown from charity Oasis Project which helps families affected by alcohol and drug use; Luci Hammond from RU-OK?; and PC Joe Davies from Sussex Police. 

Watch our half hour conversation (below) which covered:

  • signs to look out for if you think your teen is taking drugs; 
  • how a parent should approach them and talk about concerns; 
  • advice about what effect different drugs have on the body; 
  • when to seek help and where to find it; 
  • parent’s influence
  • what to do if you’re concerned about drug dealing and county lines; 
  • and what the law says. 

If you’re concerned about a young person getting involved in drugs or county lines, getting advice before talking to them can really help. Call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

HELP & SUPPORT

Talk to Frank  Information for parents worried about their child and demystifying the language around drugs

Oasis Project, helps women, children and families affected by alcohol or drug misuse, and Young Oasis providing a place of safety and support for children and young people

RU-OK? Part of Brighton & Hove Children’s Services, working alongside under 18s whose lives are affected by substance misuse in Brighton & Hove. RU-OK? adolescent service switchboard – 01273 293966 – ask for RU-OK

Change Grow Live charity with advice on alcohol and drugs including information about benzodiazepines

Young Minds offer information for parents worried about their child’s use of alcohol or drugs

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Winston’s Wish is our charity of the month for December. They do incredible and important work with children, young people and families supporting them through bereavement. 

Our Raising Teens radio show about grief featured Ross Cormack from Winston’s Wish. It was a fascinating discussion between Ross, host Guy Lloyd, Winston’s Wish Ambassador, Mark Lemon, and two other parents who were all dealing with grief. 

Dealing with grief

Winston’s Wish have a trained team who will talk to young people and those who care for them offering guidance and support with a brilliant online chat service available every Tuesday (1-5pm) and Friday (9.30-1pm).  

Their Freephone National Helpline on 08088 020 021 is open between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.

They also have a special website, Help2MakeSense, aimed at young people where they tell their own stories and share advice on everything from returning to school after a bereavement to expressing your feelings and looking after your mental health. 

We know that Christmas can be a really difficult time for those who are grieving, and especially so during this pandemic. They cite research that found that “90% of parents whose partner had died in the last 10 years said the pandemic had deepened their feelings of loneliness and isolation and 80% said their children had also struggled with loneliness and isolation”. Take a look at their latest blog post which includes tips for families coping with grief at Christmas.

The Winston’s Wish website offers a wealth of information including:
❤️ Specialist support information including following a bereavement by accident or illness, suicide, homicide and the military
❤️ Publications for bereaved families and professionals
training for professionals 
❤️ Support for schools. 

You can donate to Winston’s Wish via their website.

Follow Winston’s Wish on social media:
twitter.com/winstonswish
facebook.com/winstonswishcharity
instagram.com/winstonswish

🎧 Listen to Raising Teens: Dealing with Grief

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We tackled male mental health and home learning this week with two live Q&As with brilliant guests. Grab a cuppa and join Daisy and our brilliant guests.

Men’s mental health

On International Men’s Day, we wanted to focus on male mental health. We’ve been really concerned about the recent rise in suicide rates in men. All three of our guests for this chat have experience working with young people and gave us great insights into how to broach difficult subjects, on role models and how to tackle cannabis use, a particular concern in Brighton and Hove. Huge thanks to Carl Scott, a youth worker from Reboot Sussex, Glen Wiseman from YMCA Downslink Group and Lee Hine from East Sussex College for joining us.

YMCA Downslink offer counselling for young people aged 13+. Find out more on the e-wellbeing website.

Motivating teens to work from home

It can be so hard to motivate teens to learn from home. We talked to Darren Abrahams from Human Hive Learning to discuss the issues and he offered plenty of practical advice including what signs to look out for when your child is struggling as well as the language and tools to help build a better relationship with your teen. (If you followed our First World War project, you might remember Darren as he spoke to or teens about his work as a trauma therapist. You can hear the interview here.) Darren talked about his latest online course which is designed to help parents support teens learning at home.
For anyone interested in The Human Hive Learning course, all carried out over webinars and via their website, we have a half price exclusive to Make (Good) Trouble – which makes it about £10 (usual price $24.99). Click here for the offer.

If you have any questions for our guests or something you want us to cover in our future Q&As, let us know in the comments below.

Follow us on Facebook to catch our Q&As as they happen live.
facebook.com/wemakegoodtrouble

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The brilliant Kit Messenger from Changing Chances joined us this morning for a live chat about raising teens and dealing with conflict. She gave us some great parenting advice about how to have those difficult conversations, when to have them, and how to ask the right questions of your teen to get a positive outcome.

If you’ve had battles over homework, staying out, not helping with the housework… and all the rest! then it’ll be well worth a watch. It’s just 32 minutes long.

Live Q&A: Top tips for raising teens & dealing with conflict

Join our live discussion about parenting top tips and dealing with conflict between parents/carers and their teens with Make (Good) Trouble’s Daisy Cresswell and Changing Chances’ Kit Messenger

Posted by Make Good Trouble on Thursday, 8 October 2020

We’ll be chatting with Kit again in the coming weeks, so if you have any questions, leave a message in the comments below.

Find out more about Changing Chances on their website.

If you need someone to talk to, join the Raising Teens in Lockdown Facebook group for support from professionals, parents and teens.