It's Children's Mental Health Week in the UK.
The Princess of Wales talked with children on Monday about how important expressing your feelings is:
“Keep talking about your feelings and keep asking others how they’re doing and helping them to talk about their feelings as well."
Catherine, also known as Kate Middleton, launched a new campaign last week named "Shaping Us" -- aimed at raising awareness of how important childhood development is under the age of 5 years old. In a statement announcing the campaign, she said:
"The way we develop, through our experiences, relationships, and surroundings during our early childhood, fundamentally shapes our whole lives. It affects everything from our ability to form relationships and thrive at work, to our mental and physical well-being as adults and the way we parent our own children."
The theme for this year's Children's Mental Health Week is "let's connect". We believe this is especially important for grieving children.
A 2016 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found students struggle with mental health and have a difficult time connecting with their peers after the death of a parent:
"The bereaved students were rarely prepared for the sheer number of challenges that arose at school in the wake of their losses, such as how to talk to classmates about what had happened and deal with difficult emotions when at school."
A University of Virginia study found having friends can help us cope with stress. "We need an entire community to feel whole," a University of Maryland professor told The Washington Post.
Community. A grieving child needs a community of friends, family, and others to support them, and we're here to help. People in their orbit deserve to have support as well. Our newest blog post breaks down what we've been working on at Elizabeth's Smile.
The biggest thing to take away from this: connect with others. Reach out to your friends if you're struggling with your mental health, or if your friends are going through a difficult time. You never know how you might be able to impact someone's life by doing so.