CLEVELAND — Across the country, there's a growing trend of mental health days for your kids. More and more school districts are expanding their permission for mental health days, Ohio is one state that's introduced legislation.
In today's Mom Squad, Maureen Kyle talks with Dr. Lisa Ramirez with MetroHealth Hospitals about the right way to let your kid take a mental health day, and how to not spend the day.
“When we're not feeling great, your body will say "we just kind of need to chill, to take a rest, like let's lay in bed all day, let's scroll. We're resting. We'll feel better if we do this." But actually, that's not a great way to use that mental health day cause that doesn't refill anything,” says Ramirez.
“It's almost like if you just take a cell phone charger and just unplug it. You actually need to do things that are going to help you feel a little bit more that you've worked towards something.”
Dr. Ramirez says this can be something like journaling, talking with a counselor or taking a long walk in nature.
Ramirez and Maureen Kyle also go in depth about when to know if your kid actually needs a mental health day and doesn't want to just skip a test, how to recognize a larger pattern of red flags and how schools are increasing mental health support.
You can catch this episode on WKYC plus and on our WKYC YouTube channel.
