Season’s Greetings! With 2021 drawing to a close and Christmas day approaching fast, we asked the children and young people we work for their Winter Wellbeing tips.
2021 has been a great year for our Self-Management Service. We have celebrated the return of Face-to-Face sessions, a year of SMS:HUB, and SMS:CONNECT won the Digital Innovator Award in September! You can read more about these stories in the Winter Edition of the CHS Magazine. In the SMS: HUB session of the year, we discussed the Five Steps to Mental Wellbeing from NHS Inform and how the steps could be used to maintain and improve wellbeing over the festive period.
Susie McGuinness, Children’s Health and Wellbeing Assistant for the Self-Management Service, said: “Five Steps to Mental Wellbeing includes five key steps that can be taken to boost our mental wellbeing, including connecting with others, being active, keep learning, give to others, and being mindful. I created my own example of the five steps to help inspire the children and young people to think of their own ideas. We used the five steps with the children and young people who we help in SMS and they found them really useful to plan simple but effective ways to feel better.
“We also spoke with the 13–17-year-old group about how we consume more media when off school, and how it’s important to think about how what you’re watching and reading makes you feel afterwards. We talked about how it’s important to notice how things like passively scrolling on social media for a long time can impact your mood negatively.” With this in mind, the children and young people gave us their Winter wellbeing tips to share with you.
The group of 13 – 17-year-olds had these ideas for positive activities during the holiday period:
- Get plenty of sleep
- See friends as much as possible
- Being creative by doing art, crochet, knitting and other crafts
- Playing tabletop games and other video games with friends
- Listen to music
- Moving and dancing
The group of 9 – 12-year-olds said these were some of their favourite activities to do over the holidays:
- Have hot chocolate and play in the snow
- Build a snowman and get cosy afterwards
- Sit by a warm fire
- Relax and watch TV
Have you been inspired by the activities given by the children and young people the SMS programme? Do you have any other ideas for how you will look after your Winter Wellbeing? You can let us know on our Facebook and Twitter and also find more wellbeing tips for children and young people.
At Children’s Health Scotland, we believe every child has the right to the best possible health. You can find more information about our Self-Management service and make a referral HERE.
