Press Releases

            Seven Tips For Parents To Keep Your Child Mentally Healthy Over The Summer

           Aurora Mental Health Center Offers Summer Program To Maintain Children’s Mental Health While Out of School

Aurora, CO, June 27, 2007 – With school out of session many of those positive mental health habits learned in school can be forgotten without reinforcement.  Many families don’t know how to keep their children mentally healthy over the summer––increasing the likelihood of behavioral problems, low self-esteem, fear, anger, denial, and sadness.

To avoid these behaviors, Aurora Mental Health Center offers a six-week, therapeutic intervention program each summer to elementary school-aged children with serious emotional disturbances.  This summer program provides children with 15-hours a week of treatment and therapeutic recreation to teach them ways to problem solve, interact and communicate with their peers and adults, learn leisure activities that are safe and positive, take 100% responsibility for their actions, build self-esteem, and develop techniques to cope with depression, anxiety, conduct, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders. 

It is common knowledge that exercise and recreational activities are good for one’s physical health.  But what can it do for one’s mental health?  Several findings have shown that physically active children have better mental health than inactive children––higher self-esteem, higher levels of alertness and ability to learn, and overall better moods.

Seven tips to help parents keep their kids mentally healthy:

1. Structure the day or week with activities.  Create a schedule each day or week that has times and activities so your child knows what to expect.  For example, 9 – 10 a.m.: bike to the park.  “This works particularly well with children who have a lot of energy,” says Yvonne Baker, Case Manager for Aurora Mental Health Center.  “When they don’t have enough to do, they tend to create stimulation for themselves that may get them into unsafe situations and into trouble.  By creating plenty of activities in advance, you will reduce distractions, impulses, boredom, and ultimately depression and accidents.”
2. Clearly state rules and expectations before each activity.  By clearly stating the rules and expectations of your child before the activity begins, you will reduce any confusion and problems that may occur.
3. Hold them 100% accountable for their actions.  By having a structured environment, it allows you to hold your child 100% accountable for their actions.  “They know what to expect and what’s expected of them, so if they get into trouble, then they need to take the consequences that come with it,” Baker states.  “Don’t let their emotional problem be an excuse for their poor actions.”
4. Allow your child to play.  Encourage your child to experience activities that they have never done before to allow them to grow emotionally.  Let them play outside with new friends, take them hiking or camping, enroll them in swimming lessons, or introduce them to a new hobby.  You may also want to consider a day program that offers a variety of activities.
5. Get involved in activities with your child.  According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “strong parent-child relationships can strengthen youth resilience (a young person’s ability to recover from misfortune) and can decrease youth violence.”  Research has shown that parent’s involvement with their child tends to build secure relationships leading to better academic outcomes, greater social, mental, and emotional well-being, and less behavioral problems––all which extend into adulthood.
6. Set aside academic time each day.  Whether it be 30 minutes a day to read a short story, learn about history or nature, or accomplish an arts and crafts project, setting some time aside each day for academics will keep your child mentally healthy and ready when he or she needs to go back to school.
7. Set a bedtime.  Setting a bedtime will help keep your child on a consistent schedule; therefore balancing out unnecessary emotions around bedtime.  Set a time Monday thru Friday, and be a little more flexible on the weekends or if you have an activity that runs later such as a Rockies game.  An hour before bedtime, make sure your child has downtime––read with your child, watch a relaxing show or movie on TV, or tell a story.

“We hear about children getting into more mischief over the summer and parents asking for our advice,” says Kathie Snell, Deputy Director of Children and Family Services for Aurora Mental Health Center.  “Our goal is to teach children the life skills they must have in order to cope with their mental health condition and help them succeed in their environment and throughout their lives.”

The program emerged ten years ago from Aurora Mental Health Center’s Case Manager, Yvonne Baker, who wanted to provide troubled children with a summer program that could give them new experiences and a different form of treatment than they had ever seen before––recreational therapy.  Participants must be referred by a therapist and be given a pre- and post-evaluation.  Some of the activities on the agenda this year include swim lessons, hiking, camping, amusement parks, the Denver Zoo, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Before each trip, a therapy session is held to discuss different skills such as anger management, anxiety control, and relaxation techniques along with weekly homework assignments and a journal.

“Our summer program has been very successful over the years in transforming a child’s thoughts and actions,” says Baker.  “We have found that they express themselves more in this program than they do in the typical one-hour therapy session.”

The children’s summer program is just one of the programs offered by Aurora Mental Health Center that continues to make a positive impact in families’ lives, and have set Aurora Mental Health Center apart from other community mental health providers.

For additional information regarding the children’s programs at Aurora Mental Health Center, please contact Kathie Snell at

303-617-2300 or visit www.aumhc.org/children-adolescent-family-services.html.