Just Being Me

The COPMI national initiative & MindMatters, Australia, 2009

Related to Parental mental illness, Substance use

Produced in conjunction with MindMatters, this book is a package of ideas for middle schools teachers using ‘Helicopter Man’ and/or ‘Lockie Leonard – Legend’ as class texts and who are interested in the following potential outcomes for students:

increasing students’ understanding of mental illness and its potential affect on families
reducing the stigma associated with mental illness
increasing students’ help seeking behaviours.

Ideas provided are mainly for use in English classes with associated links for health and physical education, society and environment, maths, arts, science and design and technology.

Discover more resources

Practice paper

Why we need to support infants and children before, during and after disasters

Emerging Minds

Infants and children rely on the adults around them to meet their needs, keep them safe and help them to make sense of their world. This puts them at greater risk of adverse impacts when a disaster occurs. This practice paper introduces the foundational knowledge and skills needed to support children and families at all stages of a disaster (preparedness, response and recovery).
Practice paper

Disaster preparedness with a focus on infants, children and families

Emerging Minds

This practice paper is designed to help you understand the importance of disaster preparedness for not only increasing safety and protecting lives when a disaster occurs, but facilitating the recovery of individuals, families and communities. It also offers practical advice for supporting the disaster preparedness of the children and families you work with.
Practice paper

Understanding how disasters influence infants and children

Emerging Minds

This practice paper aims to equip practitioners with knowledge about the ways disasters can influence a child’s ecology and the importance of targeted support for children’s resilience and recovery in the short and long term.
Practice paper

Supporting infants, children and families in an evacuation

Emerging Minds

This practice paper explains why it’s important to consider pregnant people, infants, children and families in evacuation planning and management. It provides practical considerations and strategies for ensuring evacuation procedures and centres meet the needs of infants, children and families and enhance their safety, wellbeing and recovery.
Practice paper

How psychological first aid can support infants, children and families who experience a disaster (part one)

Emerging Minds

This paper is the first of two and introduces psychological first aid (PFA), a psychosocial support approach that can reduce distress and support the mental health of infants, children and families who have experienced a disaster.
Practice paper

Psychological first aid with infants and children: Practice guidance (part two)

Emerging Minds

Part two of two: This paper provides guidance to practitioners offering psychological first aid with infants, children and families in the context of a disaster.
Practice paper

Wellbeing for workers supporting children and families after a disaster

Emerging Minds

This resource focuses on how to look after your own wellbeing as a practitioner or worker when supporting children and families after a disaster.
Practice paper

Supporting infants, children and families during and immediately after disasters

Emerging Minds

Providing targeted psychosocial support to families in the immediate aftermath (the hours and days after a disaster) is essential to supporting infants’ and children’s mental health. This paper introduces evidence-informed strategies and practical advice to help practitioners support the mental health of infants, children and their parents during and immediately after a disaster. It may also aid in planning disaster response and relief strategies that are child-centred and family-focused.
Practice paper

Practices for supporting infant and child mental health after disasters

Emerging Minds

This paper provides practice guidance for addressing the immediate and long-term impacts of disasters on infant and child mental health using multifaceted approaches that promote resilience and mental health recovery.
Practice paper

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Child–adult relationships

Emerging Minds

Following a disaster it's common for children to experience increased separation anxiety. This resources explores how parents can help children to develop safe relationships with other caring adults.
Practice paper

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Emotional regulation

Emerging Minds

This resource explains the importance of connection, emotional literacy and environment in helping children feel safe, and how regulation can be achieved through the body using sensory- and movement-based exercises, along with fun, relaxing and mindfulness activities.
Practice paper

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Communication and meaning-making

Emerging Minds

This resource offers strategies to support children in making sense of their experiences and process their feelings to help reduce distress, and prevent trauma and mental health difficulties.

Just Being Me

The COPMI national initiative & MindMatters, Australia, 2009

Discover more resources

Why we need to support infants and children before, during and after disasters

Disaster preparedness with a focus on infants, children and families

Understanding how disasters influence infants and children

Supporting infants, children and families in an evacuation

How psychological first aid can support infants, children and families who experience a disaster (part one)

Psychological first aid with infants and children: Practice guidance (part two)

Wellbeing for workers supporting children and families after a disaster

Supporting infants, children and families during and immediately after disasters

Practices for supporting infant and child mental health after disasters

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Child–adult relationships

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Emotional regulation

Strategies for supporting the mental health of infants and children after a disaster: Communication and meaning-making

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