Every Mind Matters Newsletter
April 2020
Dear friends and supporters of The Psychology Foundation of Canada,
 
It has been a few weeks since we last reached out and in this short time the world seems to have turned upside down. We are living in unprecedented and unpredictable times. We hope you and your family are safe. Containing the spread of COVID-19 is of the utmost importance but the measures in place of physical distancing and self-isolation pose another pandemic: a mental health pandemic of fear, anxiety and stress spreading as quickly as the virus. While the COVID-19 virus seems to impact children’s physical health the least, the mental health repercussions likely impact our children the most. We need to take this opportunity to build our children’s resilience and ease the effects this pandemic will have on their mental health. Our team has been working diligently these past few weeks to ensure that we continue to offer you support and access to our psychology and evidence-based programs and resources during this very crucial time. Please see below the various ways in which we are here to support you and the children and youth in your care.
Help children and youth identify and manage their stress
We have developed a 3-Part Digital Training of  Kids Have Stress Too!  and  Stress Lessons  Grades 1-6 and 7-12 programs.  These programs are designed to help children and youth identify and develop the coping skills they require to manage the stress in their lives which is especially needed during these uncertain times. The training sessions are designed for both child caring professionals and parents. Please contact us for more information and availability.
Use this time to further promote strong parent-infant relationships
The parent-child attachment relationship is essential for healthy brain development especially when we are living in a time of chaos.  Make the Connection  0-3 eLearning course is designed to encourage the development of secure attachment in infants. This eLearning course was initially designed to support child-caring professionals however parents can learn from these concepts as well. Please click  here  to access the course .
 

Learn new ways to nurture resilience in children with our weekly webinars
Each week we are providing one hour webinars featuring our leading psychologists and child caring experts addressing topics that are affecting children and youth during this very difficult time. On April 15 th , Dr. Nasreen Khatri  will address the following topic:  Being Alone Together: The Social Pandemic of Loneliness during COVID-19 . Visit our  YouTube channel  to view these webinars. Also, please visit our  website  weekly for updates on new webinar topics. 
Check out our social media for daily strategies and tactics
Daily on  twitter ,  instagram  
and  FaceBook  we are providing our community of followers with strategies and tactics from our evaluated parenting, attachment and stress based programs. Did you know that music is a great way to connect with your baby? And modeling realistic optimism and postive thinking in your own behaviour is key to nuturing resilience? Or listening without judgment is key to communication with our teenager? Follow us to gain more of these practical tips.
Visit  psychologyfoundation.org  for resources
Our website has a section to address COVID-19, more importantly to direct our community of supporters to our resources that help parents/kids navigate through this uncertain time. Please visit our website frequently as we are constantly updating our resources and providing other links to articles or programs that may also be beneficial.
We have a risk management plan in place to weather the COVID-19 pandemic in the short term, however, we are asking our generous donors and friends to help us through this crisis if you can, so that we can continue to provide our important attachment and stress management programs to infants, children, and youth across the country. Please  donate  here. 
Share the newsletter within your social media channels
The Psychology Foundation of Canada
Phone : 416 644 4944 Email: info@psychologyfoundation.org