Health and Well-being

Our group wants to raise awareness of how Mental Health can be a big problem even when it seems to be started from a small issue. To help others we wanted to start an Ultranet page called "Don't Be Scared Say it Out Loud".  We want other children to be able to log on and see that other people go through the same things as them. You have to be careful that you don't go too deep into questions, these stories are deeply personal and its a huge thing to share with the world. Thats why our page is contained within Ultranet. This ensures a safe environment for these children to share their stories. We have been reading through some documents and researching about depression and how it affects people.
We rang Stepping Stones who are an organisation that helps children and adults who deal with Mental Health. We met with Steph who is training to be a social worker. She told us that making a website was a great idea because it would boost the children's confidence. She also told us that its about raising awareness, as most adults do not realise that Mental Health has just a big an impact on children as adults.
Following this we talked to Mrs Lapthorn about our ideas and thought about Seddon, who have just gone through an Earthquake. We decided to send them a card, saying we were thinking of them. We sent an email to the Principal and asked if any of the children were willing to share their experiences with us for our webpage. We also sent a letter to Mrs Barlow, the Principal at St James in Aranui, as many of her children have been deeply affected by the earthquakes that happened in Christchurch. We are hoping these stories will help other children stay strong.

Click here to login to Ultranet and see our page. It can be found under Health and Well-being.