Being a parent, stepparent, guardian

Being a parent, stepparent or guardian sees people having to balance a lot of different everyday factors to do with work, school and family life, including the need to look after not only your family’s emotional and mental wellbeing but your own too.

The Portsmouth Mental Health Hub website contains a lot of helpful tips, guides, tools and activities to support children and young people aged 5-16 as well as yourselves. Self-help resources and other help routes are age appropriate.

Practising self-care means you are better able to support your child – put on your own oxygen mask first.

Take a look at going back to basics and how you can look after your wellbeing.

Services like Positive Minds are there to help.  Positive Minds offer a unique service for adults feeling low, worried, or hopeless. The team of peer practitioners offer both 1:1 support, wellbeing groups, and have their own experiences with mental health.

Summer holiday support

The school summer break will start very soon, and this period of time can often present financial stress with expectations to take part in paid-for activities and holidays.

With changes in paid working patterns for some parents and guardians over the summer, some might find it a struggle to afford food. There are services in Portsmouth that can help including food banks, community meals, larders and pantries.

Looking at what’s local, low cost and free to you, family hubs are a ‘one stop shop’ within your community – providing information, signposting and a variety of free services, activities and support for families with children up to 25 years, in one place.

In Portsmouth, there are five family hubs in Buckland, Milton, Northern Parade, Somerstown and Paulsgrove.

Each hub has a family hub champion who can offer advice and signpost to further support.

The Family Hubs homepage also lists low cost and free activities each month.

You Are Not Alone

If you’re not sure where to get support, call 0300 123 6621 (Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm) to talk to the Portsmouth Mental Health Hub team, or chat with the team online. The team has excellent knowledge of the different services available in Portsmouth and the ability to refer you to the right service for you.