Mental Health Resources for Families

Comprehensive care at Children's Hospital Colorado

At Children’s Colorado, we provide a complete continuum of psychiatric services including:

• Outpatient
• Partial hospitalization
• Inpatient
• Emergency services for children and adolescent

Learn more about our mental health programs.

“The classes we took at Children’s Colorado were huge eye openers. We realized that for our marriage to stay together, we had to come from a common place. We needed tools to deal with our daughter, and Children’s helped us keep our family unit together.”
— Charles Gaughan, Claire’s dad

 

Five ways to support parents of a child facing mental health challenges

When a child encounters behavioral health challenges, parents often feel isolated in their experience. The stigma that still surrounds mental illness may make them less inclined to ask for help. Our child and adolescent psychologists offer tips to support friends, relatives or neighbors with a child having a hard time:

1. Reach out. Simply reaching out to acknowledge their struggles and your desire to support them is the first step to providing a caring environment. Every family will have a different way they want and experience support, so be sure to take the lead from the family on how or if they’d like your help.
2. Offer to help. If a child is hospitalized for a physical ailment, people donate meals, coordinate babysitting or send flowers. These acts of kindness can also help parents when a child is struggling with a mental health challenge. Be sure to ask the family first.
3. Encourage self-care. Parents will do anything to support their child, and that sometimes means neglecting care for themselves. Encourage them to eat well, get enough sleep and ask for help when they need it. Invite them to your home for a healthy dinner or for a quick walk to talk about how their child is doing.
4. Break the stigma. It can be emotional and stressful for parents when their child goes through any mental health episode, and the added stigma around mental health can make them hesitant to disclose their challenges. If they feel safe in sharing their experience with friends or family, they’ll be more likely to lean on a support network.
5. Join the movement. We have a plan to create a new mental health future for kids and teens in Colorado. In this new future, patients are able to receive the right care at the right time so mental health problems don’t escalate to an emergency. Together, we can get there. Join the movement or learn more.

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Help spread awareness about how to help parents with children facing mental health issues.