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Wellbeing and mental health resources for parents of young people with a visible difference

A list of resources to help parents and carers of children with a visible difference understand and improve their own mental health and wellbeing.

Looking after your wellbeing and mental health is important for all parents and carers – and particularly if you are raising a child with a visible difference.

If you need more information about the importance of good parental wellbeing and mental health please visit our information page.

On this page, we list mental health resources you can use to learn more about the importance of looking after your general wellbeing, as well as tools, techniques and exercises to help improve your mental health.

How to use this page

This page lists mental health resources from our advice and guidance section for people living with a visible difference.

A lot of it is relevant to parents raising children with a visible difference. For example, our guide to managing anxiety explores what anxiety is, what it feels like, what is going on in the body when we feel anxious – as well as some tools you can use to reduce anxiety.

Although it is written for people living with a visible difference, we hope you will find it useful too. You may also learn about how these things might be affecting your child.

List of resources

How to manage anxiety

  • Explores what anxiety is.
  • Explains how it affects our body, mind and behaviour.
  • Suggests three methods of reducing anxiety.

Read our guide on managing anxiety.

Relaxation techniques for anxiety

  • Considers the benefits of relaxation techniques.
  • Looks at how relaxation techniques can reduce anxiety.
  • Suggests two relaxation techniques for you to try.
  • Includes a series of short audio relaxations.

Read our guide on relaxation techniques for anxiety.

What is self-care?

  • Explores what self-care is.
  • Looks at signs that you need to practise more self-care.
  • Looks at positive and negative coping strategies people adopt to deal with stress.

Read our guide to self-care.

Creating a personalised self-care plan

  • Looks at the benefits of a self-care plan.
  • Encourages you to consider what your current self-care routine is like and what you might like to change.
  • Suggests goals and weekly reflection to improve your self-care regime.

Read our guide to creating a self-care plan.

You might also like

How to manage anxiety

A guide to managing anxiety that was created for people living with a visible difference but can also be used by parents.

A guide to self-care

This guide to self-care was written for people living with a visible difference, but is also relevant to parents of children with a visible difference.