‘My Voice Matters’ – Children’s Mental Health Week
We’re proud to be taking part in Place2Be’s #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek (5-11 February 2024). This year’s theme is My Voice Matters, and @Place2Be hopes to empower, equip and give a voice to every child in the UK. They've highlighted 10 ways that you can look after your mental health... Top tips for young people Don’t keep it all to yourself and spend too much time in your own head. This can sometimes make it keep piling up, and make you feel worse. Talk to someone you trust and feel comfortable with– a teacher, parent, sibling, cousin, friend... if [...]
Let’s connect for Children’s Mental Health Week
Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 (CMHW) will take place from 6-12 February 2023. This year’s theme is Let’s Connect. There are lots of ways you can get involved, here are some of our favourites! Fun activity suggestions from CMHW... Class connections One to try at school - look at the different ways you are connected to your classmates. Download the activity sheet Hula hoop connections Test your team work skills by trying this fun activity with your friends or family and some hula hoops. Download the activity sheet Music that connects [...]
Life in music: songs and lyrics that help me spill my brain
VICTA Young Ambassador Grace Hill has found her love of music, lyrics and song writing has played a key part in supporting her mental health. Finding a lyric you relate to can bring a sense of shared understanding. Grace shares with us the songs that mean the most to her and the reason they resonate with her. We'd like you to add to Grace's playlist by sharing the songs that have had a positive impact on your mental health. We've saved Grace's choices as a playlist on our YouTube channel so that you can listen to them and we'd [...]
World Mental Health Day 2022
Making mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority 10 October 2022 is World Mental Health Day and Mental Health UK are asking you to look after ‘Number 1’ when it comes to your mental health. So we want to know - what steps are you taking to make mental health your Number 1 priority? It could be taking a walk every day, taking time to talk to your family, a VICTA activity you've been a part of, or a creative activity that relaxes you. Share yours in the form below and we'll share them here [...]
Kissing the sky: How Kiss FM makes me feel like anything is possible
By Grace Hill What does 'no limits' mean to you? For me, it means finding something special in amongst the challenges you face. A piece of magic that makes you feel like you can achieve anything, whether that's in reality or in your dreams. If you're expecting the story of a blind girl who has climbed Mount Everest or won the Paralympics, get ready to be disappointed. Because, if I'm being brutally honest, I find it very hard to pair the concept of 'no limits' with my vision impairment because I'm scared of becoming a cliché. I don't [...]
Talking about my mental health
Hi. My name is Johnathan and I am 15 years old. Since it is Children's Mental Health Week, I wanted to tell you about my story and what helped me because I don't think any person should go through those few months. To fully tell this story, we need to go back one and a half years to around the time of the first lockdown. I truly started experiencing mental health issues in the summer of 2020. I became more distant, less interactive and left my room very little. I spent every day just watching YouTube and didn't [...]
How health and fitness helped me manage my mental health when I became blind
By Ibraheem Iqbal Hi everyone, my name is Ibraheem, but you can call me Ibz. I am proud to be one of VICTA’s Young Ambassadors. I have been given the opportunity to write an article about mental health in this issue. I will begin to outline what is meant by health and fitness then I will talk about my own experiences and lastly the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and tips towards achieving it. Before I begin, I would like to make the reader aware that this content may be sensitive to some people. If at any point [...]
