Communities, community organizations and schools can foster open dialogue about parental stress, mental health, and well-being, create opportunities to cultivate supportive social connections among parents and caregivers, and elevate the voices of parents and caregivers to shape community programs and investments.
Family and friends can reach out and offer practical support with household or everyday tasks, connect with parents and caregivers in your life on a regular basis, learn about mental health challenges parents and caregivers may face.
At K-State Research and Extension our Stress and Resiliency team along with Family Community Wellness Agents and Family and Child Development agents are here to support parents. We provide a range of services and partner with other community entities to provide support whether it is working on affordable and quality childcare or providing educational services around stress and mental health.
In the Cottonwood District, we partner with the Barton County Health Department to provide Becoming a Mom classes that support prenatal families and we hope to provide the same service in Ellis County in the near future. The goal is to bring families together at the very beginning of their parenting journey to support each other as well build the relationships with community services so parents know where to go when they need extra support.
We also offer Question, Persuade and Refer (QPR) which is a suicide prevention program as well as other topics around mental health such as stress and stress management.
We have wide range of educational materials in our bookstore to support parents with fact sheets covering topics such as child development, screen time, family meals, and choosing appropriate childcare. https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/
Finally, we partner with schools from child care to the university level to provide programming based on the needs of the teachers, students, and parents.
To read the entire Surgeon General report: https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/parents/index.html
2024 Surgeon General Report (continued)