Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week 2023

“Having a guardian is hope first, because when you come to the country you don’t know anything you don’t know the people and you find a person who can help you … she built my life with me, now I have got my residency and I become a citizen in UK and then I can just continue studying and build my life as I want…”

– Damso*, young person supported by Aberlour Scottish Guardianship service

Aberlour’s Scottish Guardianship service, in partnership with the Scottish Refugee Council, supports unaccompanied asylum seeking or trafficked children and young people arriving without their parents to make Scotland their new home.

To celebrate this year’s Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and its theme ‘Let’s Connect’ our young people supported by the service wished to share their advice on how other services, people and communities can connect, understand, and support children and young people just like them with their mental health.

Their top tips are:

• We often have a difference in understanding what mental health means. Often there is not a word in our languages for mental health. Or there are negative connotations to the term mental health. So when you talk about mental health, you could talk to us about our wellbeing and ask how we are sleeping and we would connect with this conversation.
• Offer to use an interpreter to communicate and connect with us. We are learning English and you may think our levels are very good but it important for us to have access to and understand information about our wellbeing.
• We would like you to have awareness about the trauma we may have experienced as unaccompanied asylum seeking or trafficked young people and the different ways it can affect us; sleep problems, difficulties with trust, loss of identity, grief and loss.
• We have had difficult experiences and journeys to the UK and it can be retraumatising to tell our stories to lots of people. With our permission, you could work in partnership with other people who look after me to make sure this is minimised.
• Be aware of important festivals and celebrations in our faiths and learn about our cultures. You can ask us to share what is important to us and this helps us as we adjust to life in a new country.
• You can ask us what we need for your service to be culturally sensitive and accessible for us to connect with the help on offer, e.g. appointments or activities that work round our faith commitments, food that accommodates our religion and our preferences, prayer room or mat.
• Learning how to say hello and goodbye in our language helps us connect with you.

Connection is important in every everyone’s life especially for a child or young person arriving in a new country without their family.

This year Children’s Mental Health Awareness week encourages everyone to connect with others in healthy, rewarding and meaningful ways. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. When a child or young person feels safe, loved and supported they can thrive and achieve their full potential and we can all help them to do this.

*Name changed.