MIND
As a parent of a child with special healthcare needs you are likely to face many challenges that can impact your psychological wellbeing and the overall functioning of your family. In this section you can listen to the shared experiences of other parents and healthcare professionals as they reflect on emotional wellbeing, grief and loss, stress and ways to promote wellbeing and resilience. Take some time to watch the videos below, to read the educational materials and to test some of the ‘mind’ exercises.
Videos - LIVED EXPERIENCE
In these interviews parents describe the impacts of parenting a child with special healthcare needs on their mental health, how they felt immediately following the diagnosis of their child and how grief and loss has impacted their daily lives. They also share the positive aspects of parenting a child with special healthcare needs and provide tips on how to manage daily stress.
Video of Professionals
In this interview Dr Linda Campbell talks about the psychological effects of parenting a child with special healthcare needs. She also provides recommendations on how to manage the feelings associated with the daily stresses and grief and loss.
This interview with Dr Heather Burnett talks about the psychological impacts of parenting a child with special healthcare needs, the challenges faced by parents and the ways in which some parents manage the stresses of caring. Dr Burnett also provides some helpful ways to mange challenging emotions.
In this interview Nicole talks about the effect of parenting a child with special healthcare needs on parent wellbeing. She also provides recommendations on how to manage the daily stress of caring for a child with special healthcare needs.
In this Video Dr Tracey Dudding-Byth talks about the diagnosis from the perspective of a clinical geneticist, the challenges faced by parents and how they overcome these challenges. She also discusses the psychological effects and the grief and loss associated with parenting a child with special healthcare needs.
Psycho-education and tip sheets
Managing Grief and Loss
When a child is born with or develops a healthcare condition, parents experience a range of emotions (e.g., shock, grief, anger) that are somewhat similar to those experienced upon learning about the death of loved one. Parents require time to adjust to the diagnosis and in some instances experience emotional reactions that may affect their ability to parent. Parents often say that feelings of sadness and grief can come at different points in their parenting journey, such as when a child does not reach a developmental milestone, but sometimes these feeling just come out of the blue. It can be helpful to learn more about grief and loss and how different coping strategies may be helpful.
Identifying and Managing Stress
Stress is a normal and expected part of life. We stress about things that are important and matter to us. Some stress is necessary and beneficial to us and improves our motivation and productivity. However, ongoing stress or prolonged stress responses can be harmful to our physical and mental health. Everyone experiences stress differently. Therefore it is good to learn more about what stress is, how stress affects you, what a good level of stress is for you, and how you can learn to cope better with stress.
Be Aware and Manage Stress
Constant stress is detrimental to our wellbeing. The good news is that there are lots of ways to learn how to manage your stress to make life simpler, more fulfilling and protect your health. We all have different ways of dealing with stress. Scientists usually divide these strategies into two categories, emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to use different strategies.
Coping with Stress
Becoming a parent and raising children is the hardest job in the world. It is often said that “children don’t come with a manual,” and while that is true, it is also true that parents are expected to know it all. Anyone who has tried it, and is honest, will tell you that parenting is hard, really hard. Being a parent of a child with special healthcare needs can be exciting and joyful, but it is also very complex and can be stressful. Your experiences and thoughts, including attitudes and expectations, can significantly impact your wellbeing. The material in this PDF outlines some of the challenges faced by parents of children with special healthcare needs and ways to manage daily stresses associated with parenting your child.
Learning how to identify and overcome ‘Mind Traps’
Mind traps can negatively affect your thinking; they can cause you to perceive reality in a different light . These thoughts can reinforce negative thinking patterns, such as telling ourselves that things sound rational and truthful, but in reality, they only serve to trigger feelings of negativity and pessimism. When you feel negative, your thoughts can become dominated by pervasive negativity. In other words, your thoughts (what you think) determine your emotions (how you feel). You can overcome these mind traps by learning to notice and identify when you are using them. Acknowledge these negative thinking patterns and learn to refute them, and over time, your negative thinking will slowly diminish and be automatically replaced with more rational thinking.
EXERCISES to improve emotional wellbeing
In this section you will be introduced to some simple exercises that can be helpful in managing difficult emotions but also to improve emotional wellbeing and resilience. We often go to the gym to improve our physical health but somehow we don’t consider that our mental health also would benefit from regular mind exercise. This does not need to be time consuming, rather small amounts of regular attention to our thoughts and feelings can have a significant impact on our mental health. Below you will find a few different activities that you might enjoy.
Three Good Things Activity
This activity is a simple method of redirecting attention towards positive thoughts and away from negative thoughts.
Self-Compassion Exercise
Practicing self-compassion means taking care of your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. It is about taking moments throughout your day to become aware of your needs, re-calibrate, and recharge accordingly. Self-care can be done at any time, such as when your child is sleeping or when they are being cared for by a family member or friend. Your needs are important and taking care of yourself allows you to take better care of your children.
Rain Activity
This mindfulness activity encourages you to pause and take stock of what is happening in the moment. The activity ends by taking you into a state of Natural Awareness, which can happen after pausing and inquiring within.