Healthy Minds

How Do You Prioritize Mental Health?

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on adult and children’s mental health, but it can be difficult to know how to really prioritize mental health and reduce the stigmas surrounding it.

Mental health is an important part of everyone’s overall well-being. Although physical health tends to be talked about more frequently, mental health is just as important and is also directly linked to physical health. When we take good care of our bodies, we can sleep better and give our mind the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. When we take good care of our mental health, we can reduce aches, pains and digestive issues, which helps us feel better physically.

It’s important to support the mental health of all children—before, during and after challenges arise. This means that mental health should be an everyday priority, woven into your families’ regular routines, and that all children (and parents!) should have access to the supports necessary to cope with the stresses of life.

Mother and daughter meditating

What is Mental Health?

Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community. (World Health Organization)

When some people think about mental health, they only think about mental illnesses such as depression. However, this is just one component of mental health. As Mental Health America explains, “While 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health.”

To help support the mental health of yourself, your children and your community, it’s important to consider all aspects of a child’s life, from their academics to their hobbies to their social and emotional skills. By supporting the whole child, teachers and parents provide the support necessary for children to thrive.

Daughter wellness image

For Families: Learn More About Having Healthy Minds

Check out this one-pager to learn more about having a Healthy Mind:

Healthy Minds Overview

Healthy Minds Overview (en español)

Learn what your family can start doing today to prioritize mental health:

Healthy Minds What Can Families Do

Healthy Minds What Can Families Do (en español)

Access Topic-Specific Family Resources

Depending on where your family is on your mental health journey, you may be looking for different types of supports. Although everyone’s circumstances are different, there are actions all families can take to strengthen their mental health—and you can start by taking small steps!

Over the course of the rest of this year, National PTA will be releasing additional resources for both PTAs and for families to help make it easier to prioritize mental health. So stay tuned! For now, we encourage you to use some of our informational resources below to begin learning more about Social Emotional Learning and how you can proactively work to strengthen your family’s mental health. We also have resources on Depression, Anxiety and Loneliness & Isolation so you can better understand these topics, learn how to recognize the signs, and know how to take action to address these issues if they arise. More topics and resources are coming soon!

Social Emotional Learning

Children, as well as adults, are likely to experience anxiety in this uncertain time. Several resources have been created by leading mental health experts on how to have age-appropriate, fact-based and reassuring conversations with you children about the outbreak and the steps they can take to stay healthy.

Building Your Child’s Social Emotional Skills – Download this resource to discover concrete ideas for embedding social emotional learning into your everyday routines!
Teaching Social Emotional Learning at Home – Read this Our Children article to hear how parents just like you support social emotional development at home.
Listen to Notes from the Backpack: a PTA podcast to hear from SEL experts like Linda Darling-Hammond, Jennifer Miller, Brandi Kenner and more!

Depression

One in six adults will experience some type of depression in their lifetime. It’s important to know what depression is and how it can be managed so you can address it if it arises for yourself and/or your children.

What is Depression? (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of what depression is, challenge common stigmas, and learn about the risk factors.
How to Get Help (en español) – Learn about diagnosis and treatment of depression.
What Your Family Can Do (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of what your family can do to prevent and manage depression.

Anxiety

Anxiety is the most common mental disorder. Each year 18% of adults in the U.S. experience anxiety, and 31% have had anxiety at some point in their lives. Approximately 8% of children and adolescents also experience anxiety each year. Use these resources to better understand what anxiety is and how it can be managed.

What is Anxiety? (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of what anxiety is, challenge common stigmas, and learn about the risk factors.
How to Get Help (en español) – Learn about diagnosis and treatment of anxiety.
What Your Family Can Do (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of what your family can do to prevent and manage anxiety.

Loneliness & Isolation

As National PTA and Learning Heroes’ recent poll—A Year Into the Pandemic: Parents’ Perspectives on Academics, Assessments and Education— found, “more than 7 in 10 parents (72%) indicated they worried ‘a lot’ or ‘some’ about their child missing out on important social interactions at school or with friends, more than any other issue/topic.” Check out these resources to better understand what loneliness and isolation can look like and what your family can do about it.

What is Loneliness & Isolation? (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of loneliness and isolation and learn about their risk factors.
How to Get Help (en español) – Learn about how to identify and address loneliness and isolation.
What Your Family Can Do (en español) – Strengthen your understanding of what your family can do to prevent and manage loneliness and isolation.

Notes from the Backpack features real conversations with real parents, experts and educators who offer real-life advice, ideas and strategies parents can use to help their children succeed in and out of school.

Episodes Focused on Mental Health

How Your PTA Can Help Improve Students’ Mental Health

We’ll be publishing resources for PTA leaders to host Healthy Minds programming in Fall 2021. For now, check out these two webinars.

What it Means to Fully Support Mental Health in Schools

Now more than ever, it’s important to understand how mental health systems serving children and youth should work, what services are available and what approaches to mental health are most effective for your school community. Sponsored by GoGuardian, this training covers the core components of mental health, how mental health intersects with learning, the vital role schools and PTAs play, and why it matters. Watch this webinar recording from September 2020 to learn the importance of taking a multi-tiered systems approach, who the key resources are in your building to support your efforts and why PTA leaders need to be prepared to educate and collaborate with school officials to improve their school’s mental health supports.

Here is the English transcript, the Spanish transcript and the Mandarin transcript.

Expert Voice

Benjamin S. Fernandez, MS. Ed., National Association of School Psychologists

Taking Action to Improve Mental Health

You may realize that your school, district and/or state’s existing mental health policies don’t go far enough to address the current mental health challenges students are facing. This training, sponsored by GoGuardian, addresses how PTA leaders can effectively advocate for the mental health needs that exist now and those that will arise throughout this school year. Check out this webinar recording from September 2020 to learn more about methods of advocacy and ways to get support for recommended policies, as well as specific policies schools benefit from having and the need to be inclusive of all students in the policies that are created.

Here is the English transcript, Spanish transcript, and Mandarin transcript.

Expert Voices

Sam Brinton, Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs, The Trevor Project

Keygan Miller, Advocacy Associate, The Trevor Project