Video Transcription

Supporting young people’s mental health

As a parent or carer, you can be supporting a young person and also supporting one of your other young people, but have a totally different experience because their needs are different. Whether it’s humour or whether it’s, “Let’s go for a walk, let’s take the dog for a walk,” or “Let’s do whatever,” I think you can intuitively know what’s more likely to work with your young person, so do that.

I was persistent with these things. She started slowly telling me what was happening at school. I’d be cooking, and she would come and tell me a story of what happened at school, then go away. So, not a lot of pushing her either—just leaving it as she says and taking one thing at a time.

You’re probably not going to have the answers. Even if you do, hold back and don’t go straight into fix-it mode. Don’t start saying, “Oh, well, let’s do this and we can do this and we can do that.” You really want to give your young person the space that they need—space to be talking to you about what’s going on and to unpack it for themselves.

Help them unpack what’s going on. You know, give her hugs and a lot of emotional support—just not dismissing it. I think that was the biggest thing for me. She didn’t just need someone to bounce off.

Also, I think as a sibling who’s caring for a teenager, you get this a lot: “You’re not my mom!” If you’re the go-to person for your sibling and they’re coming to you and relying on you, then yes, you’re doing great. But you have to remember that you are invaluable to the person that you are supporting.

Video by headspace