Top tips for helping teens to mind their mental health

HealthFest goes virtual and is a hit with teens as over 8,500 students tune in 

Greg O'Shea, ambassador for the Irish Dairy Council's ‘Everything starts with milk’ initiative.

If your teenager missed this year’s Virtual HealthFest, run by the National Dairy Council (NDC), they can still catch it online.

Over 8,500 secondary school students tuned in for the recent live event – it featured expert speakers in areas of physical activity, nutrition and mental wellbeing. Now in its fifth year, HealthFest ran virtually for the first time this year due to Covid-19.

“HealthFest delivers credible information in a fun way. And it’s especially important this year – we can all empathise with what a tough year it has been for teens. They’re at a difficult age, an age when they want to be social and see friends,” says NDC sport and wellness manager and HealthFest organiser Caroline Gunn.

HealthFest highlights include professional rugby 7’s player Greg O’Shea leading an energetic workout; head of Health and Human Performance at DCU Professor Niall Moyna speaking about the importance of physical activity (a key takeaway is doing an activity you enjoy – you’ll more likely sustain it); and dietitian Caoileann Murphy emphasising that calcium needs are at their highest from age nine to 18, a time of rapid bone growth.

“Teens listen that bit more to public figures, to those considered experts,” comments Julie O’Sullivan, PE and Geography teacher at St Vincent’s Secondary School, Cork, who encouraged her TY and fifth-year students to engage with HealthFest.

With students' and teachers' lives turned upside down by the pandemic, she liked the strong message coming out of HealthFest: being able to cope with change is an important skill to have. “You can still have a fulfilling, productive, enjoyable, wholesome life even if you have problems. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Ms O’Sullivan got good feedback from students about a 16-second breathing exercise demonstrated by broadcaster and meditation expert Dermot Whelan. “Who can’t afford 16 seconds? If you stop and take in the air, it gives you pause, oxygen, to say ‘I can deal with this’ and get back on track,” she says, adding that she particularly liked Whelan’s reminder that a relaxation exercise needs to be practised regularly to have an impact.

Ella Okpe, a 15-year-old TY student at St Vincent’s, participated in HealthFest because she wanted to learn ways to be more active. “I do go for walks with my mum but I thought it’d benefit me to watch the real pros do it. I also found the 16-second breathing helpful. We can’t help but breathe. And if you take time to hear the sound of your breath it gives you a feeling of peace – you don’t feel so overwhelmed.”

*Key HealthFest talks can also be accessed at https://healthfest.ie/.

HealthFest Highlights:

• Greg O’Shea kicks off with ten-minute workout.
• Professor Niall Moyna discusses importance of staying active through teen years/into adulthood.
• Dietitian Caoileann Murphy talks through selection of healthy foods and advises on healthy balanced diet.
• Paul Gilligan, chief executive, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, gives key tips for minding teen mental health.
• Dermot Whelan leads participants through meditation demonstration.

A survey of 2,500 HealthFest 2021 participants found:

• 89% said their knowledge/skills improved a lot/somewhat
• 87% said HealthFest worked well as webinar;
• 96% would definitely/probably recommend next year’s HealthFest to peers/teachers.