NHS health Leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire are encouraging young people to 'Express Yourself' as part of Children's Mental Health Week, running from 1 to 7 February 2021.

This year's theme is 'Express Yourself'. This year is all about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good.

Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust (CWPT) is supporting this cause and wants to encourage children and adults alike in the community to explore the different ways they can express themselves, and the creative ways that they can share our feelings, our thoughts and our ideas.

The trust is also reminding the public that NHS mental health services in Coventry and Warwickshire are still open and are accepting children and young people through lockdown.

RISE, a family of NHS-led services provide emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Coventry and Warwickshire, can provide resources, advice and support, which comes in different forms:

- Direct support: group sessions for young people and their parents or carers

- School-based resilience programmes: such as Boomerang, Big Umbrella and Mental Health in School Teams

- Support the people who support you: working alongside social care, schools and other professionals

- Community-based support for parents and carers through Rise Community Partnerships and Coventry Family Hubs

- 24-hour support through the Dimensions Tool and CWRise website cwrise.com

Just as with adults, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and continued lockdown measures have affected children. In a study conducted by The Lancet, more than a quarter of children (aged 5–16 years) reported disrupted sleep and one in ten often or always felt lonely.

Michelle Rudd, Rise Head of Service at CWPT wants to stress the importance of looking after our children's mental health from an early age, particularly during these difficult times.

Michelle said: "More than half of adults and over two thirds of young people have said their mental health has been affected during lockdown, with younger people more likely to have experienced poor mental health during lockdown than adults.

"That's why Children's Mental Health week is important; we need to encourage more conversations about mental health at a young age and explore ways of talking, expressing and displaying our feelings. This is an opportunity to do that in new, fun and creative ways."

For anyone under the age 18 who is experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the Rise Crisis team by freephone 08081 966798 (select Option 2).

During the Covid-19 response, this is service is available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, with an advice-only service outside the core hours of 8am-8pm.