Children Mental Health

These are the basics for a child’s good mental health:

Give children unconditional love. Children need to know that your love does not depend on their accomplishments.

Nurture children’s confidence and self-esteem. Praise and encourage them. Set realistic goals for them. Be honest about your mistakes. Avoid sarcasm.

Encourage children to play. Playtime is as important to a child’s development as food. Play helps children be creative, develop problem-solving skills and self-control, and learn how to get along with others.

Enroll children in an after school activity, especially if they are otherwise home alone after school. This is a great way for kids to stay productive, learn something new, and gain self-esteem and have something to look forward to during the week. Or check in on children after school if they are home alone. Children need to know that even if you’re not there physically, you’re thinking about them, and interested in how they spent their day and how they’ll spend the rest of it.

Provide a safe and secure environment. Fear can be very real for a child. Try to find out what is frightening him or her. Be loving, patient and reassuring, not critical.

Give appropriate guidance and discipline when necessary. Be firm, but kind and realistic with your expectations. The goal is not to control the child, but to help him or her learn self-control.

Communicate. Make time each day after work and school to listen to your children and talk with them about what is happening in their lives. Share emotions and feelings with your children.

Get help. If you’re concerned about your child’s mental health, consult with teachers, a guidance counselor or another adult who may have information about his or her behavior. If you think there is a problem, seek professional help. Early identification and treatment can help children with mental health problems reach their full potential.

To learn more, contact your local Mental Health Association or the National
Mental Health Association at 800-969-NMHA
(6642), or visit www.nmha.org.

Future Children Health Issues

Several years after the initiation of national goals set in Healthy People 2010 to eliminate health disparities by 2010, the continuing disparities in illness and death experienced by minorities and the poor, including their children, remain a major obstacle to improving the nation’s health. For children, the impact of conditions such as lead poisoning on cognitive and physical development can affect them throughout their lives. Due to the long lasting impact of childhood conditions, reducing health disparities among children is key to improving the well being of all children and, by extension, the nation as a whole.

Our success in reducing health disparities among children will not only lessen future health care costs, but will also improve the nation’s productivity. It is easy for parents to identify a child’s physical needs–nutritious and balanced meals; adequate shelter and clothing; sufficient rest and physical activity; immunizations; and a healthy living environment. However, a child’s mental and emotional needs may not be as obvious. Good mental health allows children to think clearly, develop socially, learn new skills, build self-esteem, and develop a positive mental outlook.

National Health Survey

The National Health Survey is a large-scale population survey conducted approximately every 5 years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 1996c). Survey information is collected from face-to-face interviews. Responses for children under the age of 15 years are collected from a parent or guardian. Information included in this report comes from the National Health Survey conducted in 1995. In that year, information was collected from about 23,800 households across Australia, encompassing around 12,400 children under the age of 15 years.

The main pieces of information from the survey used in the report include:

Recent illnesses (experienced in the 2 weeks prior to the interview)

Long-term conditions (illness, injury or disability present, or expected to be present, for 6 months or more).

Type of condition (using a classification developed for the survey based on ICD-9 codes (see appendix for list of these conditions); the conditions are not necessarily medically diagnosed conditions).

Health service use (hospital use, doctor visits, other visits to health professionals) .

Some health determinants (breastfeeding, sun protection) .