Children's emotional health and wellbeing

The emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health.  Good mental health allows children and young people to develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and to grow into well rounded adults.  

Things that can help to keep children and young people emotionally well include:

  • being in good physical health, having a healthy diet and getting regular exercise
  • having time and freedom to play
  • feeling loved, trusted, understood, valued and safe
  • going to a school that values the wellbeing of its pupils
  • taking part in activities outside of school
  • having opportunities to enjoy themselves
  • being able to learn and having opportunities to succeed
  • accepting who they are and recognising what they are good at
  • having a sense of belonging in their family, school and community
  • feeling that they have some control over their own life

Most children grow up mentally and emotionally healthy and some children and young people will need extra support.  Extra support may be needed at specific times, for example if the child has suffered a bereavement, or at a time of change eg moving house or transition to a new school. 

Other children will need ongoing support and there will not always be an obvious reason for this.  The main thing to remember is that support is available so if you are concerned about the mental or emotional wellbeing of a child, please don’t ignore it. 

If you're a young person looking for some help or support, or you're an adult looking for support for a child, your GP or school can be a good starting point.

Branching Minds Barnsley

Branching Minds Barnsley brings together local mental health support teams(MHST) and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) under one roof, helping children, young people and their families get the right support at the right time, whilst providing more seamless care. You can request support for mental health and emotional wellbeing issues centrally from the newly joined-up service.

You can request support from Branching Minds Barnsley by:

The Branching Minds team is available Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5pm and Friday 9am to 4pm (excluding bank holidays). For emergency support outside of these hours, please contact your out of hours GP (by calling your practice number as usual) or NHS 111.

Help and advice on mental wellbeing

For more information you can take a look at these links: