Resources for Social-emotional Wellness

• Westchester County Department of Health

• NYSDOH Coronavirus website

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 

• CDC Coronavirus website

• Science News Coronavirus Articles

• Altice USA (Optimum) Information Regarding Internet Service for Those in Need

• CDC Stop the Spread of Germs

• CDC Stop the Spread of Germs - Spanish

• CDC What You Need to Know About Coronavirus

• CDC What You Need to Know About Coronavirus - Spanish

• NYSDOH Guidance for Cleaning

• NYSDOH Protect Yourself Poster

• ABCDs of COVID19

 

 

• Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource

National Association of School Psychologists

The publication, Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource, from the National Association of School Psychologists, offers suggestions for remaining calm and assuring, making yourself available to young people, keeping explanations age appropriate, avoiding excessive blaming, monitoring television and social media exposure, maintaining a normal routine to the extent possible, being honest and accurate, knowing the symptoms of COVID-19, reviewing and modeling basic hygiene and healthy lifestyle practices for protection, and discussing new rules or practices for school.

• Feeling Stressed About Coronavirus (COVID-19)? Managing Anxiety in an Anxiety-Provoking Situation

New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH)

The outbreak of COVID-19 around the world has led to the spread of fear and panic for individuals and communities. In addition to following physical precautions guidelines, individuals should be taking care of their psychological well-being.

This guide includes tips for the following populations:

• For Everyone

• For Individuals Receiving Mental Health Services

• For Parents, Including Parents of Children w/ Pre-Existing Anxiety Disorders

• For Caregivers of Older Adults

• For Mental Health Providers

The guide is also available in the following languages.

• Bengali

• Chinese (Simplified)

• Haitian-Creole

• Korean

• Russian

• Spanish

• CDC: Talking with Children About Coronavirus

• Child Mind Institute: Talking to Kids About the Coronavirus

• Coronavirus: A Book for Children 

• Racial Justice Resource List compiled by A Call To Men 

• Supporting Black LGBTQ+ youth mental health requires an intersectional approach. CLICK HERE to learn strategies from The Trevor Project 

• NASP Resources on Social Justice

• Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News

• Children Books to Support Discussions on Race, Racism, and Resistance 

• Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

• Your Kids Aren't Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup from Pretty Good

• How White Parents Can Talk to Their Kids About Race

• Teaching Your Kids About Black History Month

• Diverse World Book List for Kids

• Social Justice Books for Kids to Teach about Global Issues

• Anti-bias Education: A Selection of Children's Books for Each Topic

• Grief and COVID-19
  • Addressing Grief: The National Association of School Psychologists also offers brief facts and tips for addressing grief for young people.

• Helping Children with Traumatic Separation or Traumatic Grief Related to COVID-19

• Strategies for a Successful Summer Break

• Respectful Ways is giving you Free Access to some of their most popular discussion and activity worksheets from their character education program. These "Home Connects", in Spanish and English, are designed to help you engage with your children over the summer months. There are 8 Home Connects worksheets available, one for every week during the summer, for each of the 3 age groups below. Click the link, then use the icons at the top-right to download, print, or use electronically.

  • PreK – Grade 2

  • Grades 3-5

  • Grades 6-12

• How to Talk with Your Child About Social and Emotional Issues

When kids have trouble with social-emotional skills, it may be uncomfortable to talk about the challenges they face. But it’s important to talk openly and show them there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

• Caring for Kids

Mental health affects the way people think, feel and act. Taking care of our mental health is just as important as having a healthy body. As a parent, you play an important role in your child's mental health.

• How to support children with worries 

Pointers for helping children escape the cycle of anxiety.

• Developing Your Self-Care Plan

To develop your self-care plan, you will identify what you value and need as part of your day-to-day life (maintenance self-care) and the strategies you can employ when or if you face a crisis along the way (emergency self-care)

• Parent tips for dealing with crisis situations

NYS School Social Workers Association 

• Mindfulness and Calming Resources

  • Sharon Salzberg

  • Little Flower Yoga

  • Headspace

  • Mindfulness Video for Kids

  • Sitting Still Like a Frog by Eline Snel

• Care for Caregivers: Tips for Families and Educators 

The National Association of School Psychologists also offers guidance for caregivers, called Care for Caregivers: Tips for Families and Educators. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers play a critical role in helping children cope with crises, often ignoring their own needs in the process. However, caregivers must take good care of themselves, so they are able to take good care of the children in their charge.

• DCMH will partner with different organizations and private clinicians to provide the following supports:

  • DCMH Information, Support and Referral line at (914) 995-1900 8 a.m. to 8 p.m./Text #914-461-7281.

  • Behavioral Health Crisis Prevention and Response Team (Available for psychiatric emergencies). 

  • On-going educational and supportive services on such topics as coping, addressing anxiety, parenting through this difficult time, and mindfulness exercises through various telecommunication. 

  • Psychological response to targeted groups as needed. 

  • Peer-to-Peer Support through DCMH provider network. 

  • Access to counseling and other supportive services through provider network and pro bono clinicians. 

  • Services and supports to targeted populations such as parents, teens, seniors, health care workers, first responders, LBGTQ communities and those with pre-existing mental health or substance use conditions. 

  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for all County employees and contracted municipalities 995-6070 or email pkj1@westchestergov.com. 

• Helping Children AfterTragic Events: Stop Watching, Start Talking

New York State Department of Health

Watching and listening to very bad news reports can upset children.  Parents, caregivers, teachers, and healthcare providers can do alot to help children feel safer and less stressed.Turning off theTV and other screens is a good start. News coverage of tragic events is not healthy for kids. 

• Parenting Through the Storm: One Breath at a Time

Free weekly live streamed parenting groups, led by WJCS professionals in partnership with the Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health, will be offered each Wednesday, starting April 1st, at 11 a.m. to explore various topics and challenges relating to how to cope with the “here and now.”  Subjects discussed will include: how to manage stress, build structure, communicate better, and have fun while being and, in many cases, working at home with our children.

• How to Help Your Kids Handle Disappointment

Tips for coping with disappointment during the coronavirus 

• Resilience in Children: Strategies to Strengthen Your Kids

Help your child build resilience in the face of obstacles

• Responding to Children's Emotional Needs During Times of Crisis

Important tips for parents and other caregivers.

• What to Do When Mistakes Make You Quake: A Kid’s Guide to Accepting Imperfection (What-to-Do Guides for Kids) 

This book guides children and their parents through the emotions underlying a fear of making mistakes using strategies and techniques based on cognitive behavioral principles. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to cope with mistakes. Ages 6 – 12

• What to Do When You Grumble Too Much (What-to-Do Guides for Kids) 

This book guides children and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques used to treat negative thinking. Lively metaphors and illustrations help kids see life's hurdles in a new way, while drawing and writing activities help them master skills to get over those hurdles. And step-by-step instructions point the way toward becoming happier, more positive kids. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to work toward change. Ages 6 – 12

• What to Do When Your Temper Flares: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems with Anger (What-to-Do Guides for Kids).

This workbook guides children and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques used to treat problems with anger. Engaging examples, lively illustrations, and step-by-step instructions teach children a set of "anger dousing" methods aimed at cooling angry thoughts and controlling angry actions, resulting in calmer, more effective kids. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to work toward change. Ages 6 – 12

• What to do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety (What to Do Guides for Kids. This book guides children and parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of anxiety. Lively metaphors and humorous illustrations make the concepts and strategies easy to understand, while clear how-to steps and prompts to draw and write help children to master new skills related to reducing anxiety. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering kids to overcoming their overgrown worries. Ages 6 – 12.a

 

• Big Life Growth Mindset Journal 

At Big Life Journal, we create engaging resources that help kids develop a growth and resilient mindset so they can face life’s challenges with confidence.

• GoZen 

GoZen! creates online social and emotional learning programs loved by kids ages 5-15, parents, professionals, and schools. Our mission is to reach 1 million kids with skills to transform stress, anxiety, worry, anger, perfectionism, negativity, and social worry into POWER in the year 2020!

• Resilience Activities & Worksheets

This link includes 27 different activities related to building resilience for children and adults. It focuses on activities to help individuals bounce back from struggles and setbacks.

 

• Books that are helpful for the K-2 children are:

  • “Wilma Jean the Worry Machine” Julia Cook (also available on YouTube for viewing)

  • “Don’t Be Afraid to Drop” Julia Cook. 

  • In regard to keeping a safe distance from peers, “Personal Space Camp” by Julia Cook

• Go Noodle App 

Get ready for a brand new way to experience GoNoodle with GoNoodle Games, a free app created to get kids moving at home and on the go!

• Keeping a journal WITH your students is a great way to help them express themselves:

Drawing pictures, cutting and pasting pictures, have them write and/or have them dictate to you.

• Sesame Street Resilience:

Sesame Street characters help to build resilience for younger children through multiple activities, songs, and videos. This provides specific lessons and videos that can be used to foster resilience skills and emotional intelligence for younger children.

• Social skills that can be practiced while playing a board game: turn taking, good sportsmanship, following directions and waiting.

Families should play board games, or card games, and have children lose and assist in learning how to cope. In addition, winning gracefully is another important lesson. 

• Stop, Breathe, and Think Kids app

For children 5 – 10, guided mindfulness exercises that keep kids engaged and address emotional regulation and attention.

• Just for Teens: A Personal Plan for Managing Stress 

• Managing Stress in Teens and Adolescents: A Guide for Parents

• Positive Psychology: 23 Resilience Building Tools and Exercises 

23 resilience training activities that can be used with teens and adults to foster resilience skills. This also provides powerpoints and resources to teach teens and adults the skills they need to be resilient and bounce back from setbacks. Additionally, it offers a “mental toughness" test and training used by the Army to build mental toughness.

Center Lane is providing Pride Camps for LGBTW teens over the summer

• Crisis Prevention Response Team

Serving Westchester County

Call (914) 925-5959 - 24/7 Telephone Coverage

Mobile Response Now Monday - Saturday

Walk-in evaluations available 24/7 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Harrison.

*Services available in Spanish

What is the Crisis Prevention and Response Team (CPRT)?

The CPRT is an interdisciplinary mobile team of mental health professionals (social workers, a child and family specialist and a psychiatrist). The Team responds to people in the community, usually visiting them at home, although they can be seen elsewhere as well. The team also has offices at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers and at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Harrison. 

• Crisis Text Line

Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime, about any type of crisis. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and responds, all from our secure online platform. The volunteer Crisis Counselor will help you move from a hot moment to a cool moment.

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

1-800-273-TALK (8255) 

If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained crisis workers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your confidential and toll free call goes to the nearest crisis center in the Lifeline national network. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals.

• New York State Office of Mental Health Crisis Counselors

Call 1-844-863-9314 or text GOT5 to 741741.  

Are you struggling in the midst of COVID-19? Crisis counselors are still just a phone call away. 

• SAMHSA’s National Helpline 

1-800-662-HELP (4357)/ 1-800-487-4889 (TDD) 

Free and confidential information in English and Spanish for individuals and family members facing substance abuse and mental health issues. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Utilize the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

• Telehealth 

  • Westchester Jewish Community Services

  • Mental Health Association of Westchester

  • Guidance Center of Westchester

  • Family Services of Westchester

    • To make an appointment contact Director: Andrew Levine, (914) 738-1728, alevine@fsw.org  

  • Pelham Together also has an extensive list of therapists that you can contact.  Click on the link: https://pelhamtogether.org/service-providers

  • **Please check with your insurance company for coverage on “tele-therapy” for private therapists in the community.**

• If you are in need of immediate assistance, please dial 911.