In this week's podcast, Dale Pickles from B Squared is joined by Lana Grant to discuss supporting mental health in primary aged children. There has been a history of a lack of support for children's mental health. It needs to change.

Lana has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and is also a parent of children on the autism spectrum Lana is a specialist SEN advisor and an advocate for SEN children and their families. Lana has worked Lara's first book "From Here To Maternity, pregnancy and motherhood on the Autism Spectrum" was published in 2015. Lana also contributes to various articles, podcast and delivers talks at various shows and events.

Over the last 5 years, as a country we have started to realise the importance of mental health, but we aren't always following through. We talk about how important mental health is, but are we making changes to support each other and especially children?

There is lots of discussion in the media about how many children are suffering and will suffer due to COVID. There is limited support for those young people. Increasingly the responsibility is being pushed to school staff who are not trained to offer this support and feel that they don't get enough support themselves to deal with this topic.

This is a timebomb waiting to explode and with the current pandemic is likely to increase. Mental health should be everyone's business. We need to empower people to know how they can help, what to look out for and when to involve specialist services.

Useful Links

Young Minds - https://youngminds.org.uk/

Mental Health Foundation - https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/c/children-and-young-people

NHS - https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/youth-mental-health/

Childline - https://www.childline.org.uk/

MindEd - https://mindedforfamilies.org.uk/young-people

Contact Lana Grant

Website – www.lana-grant.co.uk

Email – [email protected]

Twitter – @LanaGrantAutism

For more podcast episodes from the SENDcast click below…

https://www.thesendcast.com/sendcast-episodes/