AMH Foyle unveils new mental health programme for children as young as four

Action Mental Health Foyle have introduced a new mental health promotion programme, provided by AMH across Northern Ireland, for primary school children as young as four.

The new programme, Little Healthy Me, is a vibrant and engaging, trauma-informed, mental health initiative aimed at building resilience in children in Primary one, two, three and four.

Little Healthy Me explores emotional wellbeing issues, healthy lifestyle choices and pathways to effective support through imaginative and interactive play and song and has a strong focus on prevention and self-help.

The ground-breaking programme was unveiled during Children's Mental Health Week which took place from February 7-13, the theme of which is Growing Together.

Little Healthy Me was developed by Action Mental Health as part of the Our Generation project and is an extension of its hugely successful Healthy Me Programme for children in P5-P7, which has been running for several years. 

Our Generation is a cross-community, cross-border initiative whose motto is Growing Up Better Together, tying in with this year’s CMHW focus.

The new programme is unveiled against a backdrop of growing need for better mental health services across Northern Ireland. 

The first year of the pandemic marked an 11 per cent rise within one local health trust area, in those aged 18 and under, attending emergency departments for serious mental health issues, compared to 2019. 

Those statistics, gathered within the Western Trust, included a five-year-old child and another, aged nine.

Targeted at four to seven-year-olds in P1-P4, Little Healthy Me sessions are delivered to Northern Ireland’s school children through interactive and fun, three-hour workshops, offered over three sessions by Action Mental Health and Our Generation specialist project workers.

The mental health-enhancing Little Healthy Me sessions are delivered by Action Mental Health free of charge to participating schools thanks to generous donors.

Action Mental Health also provides free Little Healthy Me sessions for school staff, parents and carers, to promote whole school and whole community approaches as the most effective way of improving wellbeing outcomes for children.

Children participating in Little Healthy Me explore the area of mental health through engaging activity workbooks with a focus on the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing through problem-solving; coping and resilience skills and challenging stigma and discrimination. 

The sessions further teach children how to seek help when needed and where to find support as well as supporting the transition to post primary school.

The programme uses evidence-based approaches to promote the importance of mental health with physical health, and teaches children how to understand and express feelings appropriately. 

It also encourages adults to think about their own mental health needs and those of the children they care for.

Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion, Professor Siobhan O’Neill, praised Little Healthy Me, “Preventative intervention programmes such as ‘Little Healthy Me’ make an important contribution to our efforts to improve mental health here in Northern Ireland" she said.

"Importantly, Little Healthy Me is designed by experts and is evidence-based, using strategies that we know will create resilience.

"Little Healthy Me uses play to foster connection and build strong social and emotional awareness, which will better equip our children to cope with life’s difficulties and flourish.”