You can talk to me: A family guide to support students' mental health and well being

Workshop 5 of 6 in the "Trauma-informed, in school sessions" workshop series. View the series page for full details.

How might we partner with parents, caregivers and families through trauma informed approaches to support the mental health and well-being of the children and teens in their lives? In 2023, Project Cal-Well (a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education to promote mental health awareness and wellness among California's K-12 students) designed the Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being for parents and other caregivers (available in English and Spanish), with input from families, educators, mental health professionals, and youth. By sharing tips for families on how to have conversations about social media use, mental health, anti-LGBTQ experiences, bullying and more, this guide provides parents and other caregivers with information and easy-to-use strategies to support their children’s overall well-being and mental health.

How did the guide’s authors partner with students and their families to create this guide? How might we support students and families to dig into its information and leverage this resource to partner with parents and other caretakers? Join us to explore these questions, and the guide itself, while learning from several of its authors about how the guide’s development process was trauma informed.

Participants will: (1) learn about the development and content of the guide; (2) have the opportunity to consider how to get the guide and related local resources into the hands of families; and (3) generate ideas for how to use individual sections of the guide to align with a school’s continuum of trauma-informed approaches and social, emotional, and behavioral supports.