Today on the podcast, Sean continues his talk with Paula Mazza about what to do about mental health in our preteen ministries.
Paula discusses some things that can be done now if you suspect some mental health issues in your preteen ministry. One of the easiest things we can do is to talk about it. Helping preteens to know ways to express how they are feeling can help them to get their feelings out. We are great at making kids feel physically safe in our ministries but often times we don’t think about making them feel emotionally, spiritually and socially safe.
There are so many simple things that will emotionally make a preteen feel more comfortable in your ministry. Here are just a few ways Paula suggests.
Making sure that they know that they are seen. Connecting with them so that they don’t slip through is also a great way. Normalizing emotions is so helpful to make preteens feel comfortable with the feelings they are having. One of the biggest things you can do in your ministry is working with you church and community to put together a referral plan. Navigating mental health can be overwhelming for families and anything that we can do to help them will allow the church to be a light in our communities. Familiarize yourself with the difference between clinical mental health and just mental health in general by knowing some of the warning signs.Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast? Send it to podcast@fourfivesix.org. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.
