I feel fortunate to have a job I believe in so deeply.
Day in and day out, I get to further the cause of championing kids’ mental health. I write and publish content that supports parents, teachers and other caregivers in helping kids achieve optimal mental wellness.
It’s a literal dream come true!
I’ve written about mental health, self care and mental well-being on this blog for years as a hobby, simply because I love to do it. Now, I get paid to write about those topics.
I have always been a fan and advocate for the On Our Sleeves movement for kids’ mental health – and our amazing local children’s hospital from which it grew. I’ve blogged about them for years, but I’ve never done a roundup of those posts. So let’s round ’em up!
- Breaking the stigma about kids mental health (March 2020) – This was my first post about the On Our Sleeves movement and the NCH Behavioral Health Pavilion. I wrote this pre-Covid and before our own family’s struggles with mental health issues. Ah, what a sweet summer child I was.
- Get your family talking (March 2020) – A few weeks later, I blogged about the importance of family conversations and recommended a conversation-starter resource from On Our Sleeves.
- Boosting our mental health with gratitude (May 2020) – For Mental Health Awareness Month, which happens every May, I received a lovely care package from On Our Sleeves and wrote about gratitude as a way to boost our mental health – even during a global pandemic.
- Why are tweens and teens moody all the time? (August 2020) – My daughter (age 10 at the time) wrote this guest post for me, and we included On Our Sleeves as a resource.
- Do you know how to handle a mental health crisis? (September 2021) – I shared what to do in the case of a pediatric mental health crisis, relying heavily on resources from NCH and On Our Sleeves.
- Ending the stigma around kids and mental illness (October 2021) – I wrote about how the stigma is worse than the mental illness itself! I still believe this. I also included On Our Sleeves as a resource.
- Jeni’s and On Our Sleeves: here’s to sunshine and better days (April 2022) – I wrote about being the lucky recipient of a care package courtesy of the best collab since chocolate and peanut butter. Sunshine ice cream really was amazing – I hope Jeni’s brings it back!
- Two little words can help kids with their mental health (May 2022) – For Mental Health Awareness Month, we wrote about the On Our Sleeves “Operation Conversation” campaign to get families talking.
- 4 things you need in your self-care toolbox (January 2023) – Everyone should have a self-care toolbox to turn to when times are tough or you experience mental health struggles. I included On Our Sleeves as a resource again here.
- One of our family’s favorite conversation starters (February 2024) – We wrote about getting families talking again and included links to some On Our Sleeves resources.
I’m sure that I will continue to blog about mental health here. And, thanks to my role on the On Our Sleeves team, I’ll get to keep writing about kids’ mental health every day. I’m so happy to be working for such an amazing organization!
If you have younger kids but haven’t checked out the On Our Sleeves site and all our amazing resources, please do so – you’ll be glad you did.
