Support for young people

Here are some tips for mentors and whānau to support taiohi at this time:

• Talk with your taiohi / young person about what has happened, and what is being done to help us all pull through, in a way they can understand. Be honest but make the information age-appropriate – don’t overdo it or it can lead to overwhelm.

• Share the positive stories you hear of support and care being shown in the community.

• Be prepared to answer questions – sometimes the same question over and over again. This is their way of making sense of the situation.

• Talk about different feelings people, including you, may have after such an event. Acknowledge how they are feeling. Fear, sadness, guilt and anger are all common emotions felt after a natural disaster. Show empathy e.g., “I can see that you are feeling mad/sad, do you want to talk about it?”.

• Use opportunities to teach how to manage emotions by stating how you are managing your own e.g. “I’m feeling a bit sad. Now that the sun has come out, let’s go for a walk to help me cheer up a bit.” Or “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, I might take 5 minutes quiet time.” Or “Whoa, I lost my temper there. Hey, there’s a lot going on, I’m pretty full up, so I’m really sorry about that, I needed to take a deep breath. Now, let’s try that again”.

• Reassure your young person that they are safe and being taken care of.

• Take care of yourself and keep calm to better help taiohi (*see below). Kids look to adults to know how safe to feel.

• Allow children to keep as much of their daily routines as possible and spend time together as family and whānau and/or with a trusted adult mentor.

• Organise for your child/children to spend time with their friends.

• Remind your young person they have got the skills to get through hard things e.g., how they got through Covid or other hard things they have got through in the past.

• Monitor exposure to media coverage, including television, radio, social media and newspapers.