Children’s Mental and Nutritional Health – #WhyWeCare

Posted on 14th May 2021 by Beth Owen

This Foster Care Fortnight we want to talk to you a little bit about children’s mental and nutritional health; and #WhyWeCare so much about it. We thought, who better to discuss this topic than our Resource Manager, Claire? On an almost daily basis, Claire works with a many different young people and is very keen on advocating for healthy minds & healthy bodies.

This is Claire’s #WhyWeCare story..

Why We Care: Children's Mental and Nutritional Health

“Why I care…”

“I have worked for Lorimer for 18 years. 😱

During this time I have seen Lorimer grow and I have had the pleasure of working with a lot of young people, helping them to understand their feelings and embrace the changes in their lives.

I’m very focused in making positive changes. I find that teenagers struggle enough with daily battles over appearance & educational difficulties as well as the trauma they go through of moving into care.

Healthy Mind = Healthy Body

I do a lot of healthy minds work with the young people I visit. We do a lot of looonnnggg walks and talk the whole way through about life’s journeys. We collect stones off beaches and then paint them and place them out for others to find. These have positive sayings on them. The young people enjoy doing this as they like to make others smile and be reminded that there are still a lot of people out there to listen and care about you.

I am very focused on mental health and believe in healthy mind healthy body. I encourage healthy eating along with exercising.

Everyone has bad days but our young people always know there is someone there to listen and help them. I enjoy my job and I think it shows that the young people enjoy seeing me as they are still happy to walk 10 mile hikes in the rain.

I have the pleasure of seeing young people that are really struggling, in time they embrace the changes and work with me and other adults to help them grow into young adults that have a career and start their own little family. That is the most rewarding part of my job. Being able to see the changes the young people make. This gives me the drive and motivation to continue on caring and helping others.

In reality I have an amazing job as the young people are so amazing to work with. They are all different little stars that when embraced and cared for show their skills and all shine bright in their own ways.”