Five steps in one week

The activity

For one week, the family tries one easy thing for each of the NHS’s five steps to mental wellbeing: connecting with people, being active, learning something, giving, and paying attention to the moment.

What it is for. The five steps are simple things that support wellbeing, children’s and parents’ alike. Doing them together for a week turns them into something the family does, so nobody is being told to look after themselves.

• The first step. Write the five steps on a sheet: connect with other people; be physically active; learn something new; give to others; pay attention to the present moment.

Safety. If she is being treated or assessed for an eating disorder, her team’s plan comes first, including for the active step.

When to get help. These steps support wellbeing; they are not a treatment for mental illness, and a child can do all five and still be struggling. If she has been low, anxious or withdrawn for more than a couple of weeks, or it is affecting school, sleep or eating, talk to your GP or her school. If she tells you that someone is hurting her, that she is hurting herself, or that she doesn’t want to be alive, stay calm, thank her for telling you, don’t promise to keep it secret, and act that day, using the routes under “If you need help right now”, at the foot of every page.

The other four steps, and your part in it, are in the library.

It goes with

• When You Are Not All Right. For parents whose own mental health is part of what’s going on at home.
• When Reassurance Stops Working. For parents whose child is anxious and can’t be talked out of it, however often the adults around her try.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.

Free on this subject

• General mental health. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
• Low mood. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.