South London and Maudsley

NHS Foundation Trust

We are Lewisham Mental Health Support Team (MHST) and we work within your school to support emotional wellbeing and mental health. Our focus is on early intervention, prevention and promotion which means supporting everyone to understand how to look after their mental health and wellbeing, as well as addressing difficulties as soon as they begin. Some of the things we help with are:

• Feeling sad or numb
• Anxiety or fears
• Friendship difficulties
• Managing emotions
• Dealing with change
• Not going to school

For further information on the type of support we offer as well as how best to contact our team please visit www.slam.nhs.uk/mhst-home

Healthy Families Right from the Start

As parents, we want the best for our children, but its not always easy to know what they need to grow or to make healthy family choices. There isn’t only one way to bring up healthy children, and each family is unique and needs to discover what works best for them. , but with so much conflicting advice it can be hard to know what to do for the best as a parent, especially in the early years.

But there are some simple principles and strategies we can follow, that will help. Knowing what we want to change is the first step.

That’s where HENRY Healthy Families Right from the Start comes in.

About the programme

Henry Healthy families Right from the Start programme is for parents or carers of children aged 0 to 5 years. It is free to join and helps you give your child the best possible start in life. it will help support you to think about your family’s lifestyle and decide what change you would like to make, for a healthier happier family.

Research has shown that the key ingredients to ensuring babies and young children have a healthy start in life are:

• Parenting confidence
• Physical activity for babies and children
• What children and families eat
• Family lifestyle habits
• Enjoying life as a family

The programme runs for 8 weeks and covering the following topics:

• Parenting skills
• How we eat and what we eat
• Being active
• Emotional well-being.

Empowering you with the skills and tools you need to help get your little one off to a great start.

The Weekly sessions focus on:

Week 1 – Let’s get started– Deciding what changes you want to make as a family and setting your own family goals.

Week 2 – Balancing Acts -How to juggle life with young children so you all get what you need

Week 3 – Needs and demands – How to respond to your children’s needs without giving in to all their demands

Week 4 – Tuning into mealtimes – Positive tips for reducing mealtime stress for the whole family.

Week 5 – Time to be active – Ideas for active play to help children be active, learn, develop and stay happy.

Week 6 – Lets eat healthily – Looking at food groups, food labels, portion sizes for under 5s, first foods, and snack swaps

Week 7 – Lets focus on feelings – Understanding and managing your child’s behaviour for a happier family home.

Week 8 – The way forward –  Celebrating your success as a parent and planning the future for you and your family.

What do I get on a HENRY programme?

As well as developing your confidence, motivative, resilience and skills as a parent  empowering you to make the changes that will  help your children flourish and grow up healthily.  Every parent who joins the programme receives a HENRY toolkit which includes everything you’ll need during the programme and helpful resources to use in your family.

The HENRY toolkit will help you:

give your child a great start in life,

get the whole family  active and involved,

keep track of how well you’re all doing.

Is HENRY’s Healthy Families programme for me?

If you have a child under 5 and can answer ‘yes’ to any of the questions below then HENRY is for you:

• Would you like to feel more confident as a parent or develop and learn new skills?
• Would you like some support to help you give your child a healthy start?
• Do you wish your child would eat more fruits and vegetables?
• Would you like to make mealtimes less stressful?
• Would you like your family be more active together more often?
• Would you be interested in some ideas to help get your children away from the TV?

If you would like to book to the next course visit our timetable page for dates and how to book a place.

KEEPING WELL - SUPPORTING MENTAL WELL-BEING