Understanding, Navigating and Addressing Social Determinants of Health For Children
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health (SDOH) as “the conditions and environments in which people are born, grow, work, worship, play, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.” Despite being non-medical, all of these factors can play a part in a person’s health outcomes.
Some Ingredients of Resilience
Resilience comes from the Latin word “resilere.” It means “to spring back” or “to recover from misfortune.” Those children who are more resilient than others tend to be able to tolerate more effectively the everyday stressors and strains that many of them encounter each day. Research also tells us that resilient children are less likely to be depressed and helpless, more likely to be able to problem-solve with a variety of solutions to their challenges, and better able to deal with disappointment and failure experiences.
The Mental Health Care Crisis Continues One Year Later…Maintaining Emotional Wellness During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been stressful and traumatic for many people, particularly our children and adolescents. As we approach the pandemic’s one year anniversary, unfortunately, many of us are continuing to grapple with its distressing effects both physically and emotionally.
The Way Back
Whether the opening of schools is just around the corner, or maybe next semester, or maybe even next year, one can be assured that there will be some concerns on the minds of all those involved: students, teachers, administrators, and parents. Will everyone be safe? What, in general, can be expected upon everyone’s return?
Are We Overprotecting Our Children?
Can there be such a thing as protecting children too much? Do parents take responsibility for their children’s anxieties, failures, disappointments and frustrations more than they should? Do they intervene too quickly with what they perceive as unfair treatment of their children at the hands of teachers, coaches, and even neighbors?
Protecting Children, Helping Parents
The changes in how children and families conduct themselves during these weeks of quarantine have placed enormous burdens on everyone involved. Children no longer have access to those many systems that they have become accustomed to participating in outside the home: schools, play groups, organized sports and other activities, and simple neighborhood gatherings with friends. Similarly, parents now have to remain in close quarters with their children in the absence of such opportunities, having to serve as parent, teacher, and activity director, all with no end in sight. After all, the outside world has always provided other folks to take care of these things which gave everyone on the home front a break from each other.
Keeping Up Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) at Home
School corridors are empty. Students and teachers all are home-bound for the duration of the shelter-in-place requirements in response to the threats caused by the coronavirus. Parents now become the primary supervisors of their children’s education.
Social and Emotional Learning: A Key Component of Education
Professionals in the fields of education and mental health have recognized for some time the importance of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), a critical adjunct to academic learning in our schools. SEL is a process through which children and adults acquire skills to enable them to manage their emotions, take responsibility for their own behaviors, maintain positive relationships with others, and communicate effectively. There are many evidence-based programs available to impart these skills.
Helping Children Bounce Back: Resilience
Children compete for a spot on their favorite sports teams but don’t make the “cut.” Some of them will skulk away, never to try again, while others will return the following year for another go at it after more self-imposed practice. A poor grade on a test will be devastating to some, yet it will be little more than advice to others to study harder for the next one. Why the
differences in responses to these disappointments?
Helping Children Cope with COVID-19, the Coronavirus
If social distancing has become the operative term in the light of this virus, and if social isolation is the “new normal” for families for the foreseeable future, how can they answer their children’s questions and help them cope with this new reality? Here are some suggestions.