About Parental Minds
Parental Minds gives support to families who are struggling with their mental health. We believe that the parental voice is vital when families are living with mental health issues; this under pins all our work. We help parents and caregivers tackle a range of mental health struggles, including self-harm, anxiety, and school refusal.
We are also thrilled to announce the grand launch of The Exeter Community Lottery! If any of our incredible families or their friends are considering participating, we kindly request that you obtain your tickets via our page. Parental Minds services are for those who are supporting their child, family or friend’s mental wellbeing. Every single ticket purchased through our dedicated page will play a pivotal role in enabling Parental Minds to expand our reach and enhance our essential services. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to you, and may luck be on your side in the forthcoming draw!
Buy your tickets via our direct link: https://www.exetercommunitylottery.co.uk/support/parental-mind-cic
Please share with your friends, family, colleagues and connections and encourage them to support us!
Parental Minds Resources
Parental Minds Resources are developed through lived experience with professional input and the voices of family members.
Parental Minds resources are the foundations of the support we deliver through Parent+ Support Hub. Each resource is the result of a question being asked to Parental Minds or through Parent+ Support Hub.
- How can I support them today? Ideas to try when things are difficult
- How can I cope today? Helping remind you to take care of yourself
- How can we move forward? Planning & improving mental well-being
- How do mental health services work? Navigation through the services
- How do others cope? Blogs from others with lived experience
These resources are very well thought through and the language is accessible and non-stigmatising. They provide a framework for carers and supporters who will hopefully find they can practice the suggestions so that in time they become more skilled in remaining grounded and calm and less emotional/confrontational when dealing with an overwhelmed person.
Dr D Starley
See our links section for further information on Helplines, Mental Health Conditions & Education.
Parent+ Support Hub
The Parent+ Support Hub is for Caregivers who support family, friends or colleagues with mental health issues.
We also offer support to Caregivers of those who use SELF-HARM to tolerate their distress, including 1st aid training. We are developing support material through research work with Coventry University, please contact us to review this information.
Parental Minds Counselling
Parental Minds Counselling is available to all Parents/Carers and those aged 16-25.
Our main catchment area is Honiton, Sidmouth, Seaton, Ottery St Mary & Axminster.
- Weekly Sessions
- Face to face, telephone or virtual
- We ask for a weekly donation that is affordable, to be agreed in advance
Get in touch to find out more.
Sharing Parental Voices
Sharing Parental Voices in the research and development of local and national services; with a particular interest in those who use risky behaviour to tolerate distress.
We share opportunities for you to share your own experience. Some Caregivers find it therapeutic to join ‘participation’ groups. We share these opportunities through our newsletters and social media. We also take themes from our Parent+ members to local and national research projects.
Mental Health Support Networks
Parental Minds play an active role both nationally and locally; focussing on Parental Peer support and the mental wellbeing of young people.
We facilitate the Mental Health Network – Honiton, creating one place where Honiton residents can find information on Mental Health services that they can access for support.
We are part of the PLACE network. The PLACE Network aims to develop, promote, and sustain parent and carer support and involvement in children and young people’s mental health across the UK. Parents and caregivers with lived experience of supporting a child with mental health issues and professionals with an interest in parent support meet monthly to share practice and ideas.
See our links section for further information on our Network members.
How iBelong influenced Honiton’s Parental Minds service and our link with Ottery, Sidmouth, Axminster & Seaton.
Eating Disorder Support
We offer the Tastelife Eating Disorder Course. The course is for anyone who believes they have an eating disorder because issues around eating have taken over their life. You don’t have to have an ‘official’ diagnosis to come. It doesn’t matter what sort of eating disorder you have either – this course is for you.
It is also open to parents, siblings, friends and carers of sufferers.
The aim of the course is to give you a toolkit of resources that you can use to start walking out of eating issues and back into enjoying life again, baby step by baby step. The tastelife course is not a cure or therapy, but it is a safe place where we can learn and grow together. Full recovery from eating disorders is possible! Tastelife have seen it and work with people who are either fully recovered or well on their way.
We believe in new beginnings and starting where you are. We know it isn’t all about food. There is a way out, and the tastelife course helps you to look forward to a time when eating, or not eating, is no longer holding you in its grip. The intention is that you can take hold of life in all its fulness, tasting food and enjoying it without fear, wherever you are and whoever you are with.
Parental Minds also holds New Maudsley Carer Skills Workshops for parents and carers of a loved one with an eating disorder, based in the Southwest of England. The sessions are led by Sara Newton, a compassionate lived experience carer.