Homebuilders – App opportunities

There is growing awareness of the availability and use of wellness apps, particularly among young people. We should not be surprised that young people – often called digital natives – turn to their smart phones for help and support in many areas of their lives. And although some of us, who may be already irritated by the push online for the simplest of tasks may find this silly or even scary, wellness apps may not be such a bad or frivolous thing according to much of the available research. However, and importantly, opinions agree that use of these apps should be in addition to other means of support rather than in place of them.

This means that some kind of human interaction and supervision is necessary to make these apps as useful as they can be. So, it is important to know if your young person is exploring them or using them and if so, why? Enquiring about their knowledge of the wellness apps, and there are many, is a wonderful opportunity for parents and caregivers to connect with youth in their care and a good way to casually start a conversation about the often tricky to approach subject of mental health and wellness.

Homebuilders Family Support runs regular parenting courses called Bag of Tricks, and among the many useful learnings, people have told us that the principle of “Connect before you correct” is the most useful and powerful tool in many parenting situations and beyond. Simply put, this is using a positive approach in reaction to an undesirable or dangerous behaviour. For example, instead of saying, “Stop whining!” try saying something like, “I can see you are upset, what is going on?”

The same principle of connection can be used to tackle difficult conversations with young people. In this case, you could try something like, “Hey, I have been reading about these wellness apps, what do you think about them?” You could look at them together and discuss mental health and wellbeing to, firstly, normalise needing support and to reassure them that you are there for them. Not knowing what to say can be a barrier to starting a conversation. Depending on the situation, you could create a meaningful or humorous code-word to help reduce barriers.

Bonding is not a one-off, cemented-for-all-time process, it is more like a dance, being in-step and out-of-step in an ongoing process of building and rebuilding as we go through the immense life changes and challenges of growing up.

Homebuilders Parenting courses run each term, visit us at https://www.homebuildersfs.org for more details or call or visit us anytime. We are here for you and yours.