HealthInfo Canterbury
Getting help for my child with anxiety
Whai āwhina mō taku tamaiti mānawanawa
There are lots of things you can do to get help for an anxious tamaiti (child).
Talk to your GP or practice nurse first. If necessary, your GP can refer your tamaiti for more specialised assessment and treatment.
Talking therapy
To help a tamaiti struggling with anxiety, it's always necessary to look at the whole whānau (family) situation. If a parent is anxious, stressed or unhappy, it's very likely that their tamaiti will have difficult emotions to manage. Getting help for the parent's problem will also help the anxiety of the tamaiti.
Support will focus on:
- supporting the whānau to make changes at home to reduce any causes of stress
- helping the tamaiti and parents understand what's at the heart of the anxiety
- teaching the parent to respond to stress in a healthy way. This means the tamaiti can follow their parent's example and respond differently to anxious thoughts.
If the anxiety your tamaiti has doesn't respond to other measures you may need a referral to Canterbury DHB Child, Adolescent and Family Community Mental Health Services.
You could also arrange to see a private psychologist or psychiatrist (mental health doctor).
Your GP can help you find a therapist or refer you for some free counselling. You can find a counsellor, therapist or psychiatrist in the Family Services Directory. The Mental Health Education and Resource Centre (MHERC) can also help. Some therapy options will cost but your GP can talk through the approximate cost with you.
Social support
The following organisations can provide counselling for tamariki (children) or whānau members, group courses to help tamariki or parents better understand the emotions of the tamaiti, and one-to-one parenting support.
- Christchurch Methodist Mission – work with tamariki
- Catholic Social Services – counselling for whānau/families and tamariki/children and group courses
- Presbyterian Support Family Works – support for tamariki/children
- Pukemanu Centre – one-to-one parenting support and parenting programmes
- Home & Family Society – child therapy
- Stand for Children – social services in schools
- Cholmondeley – respite care
If you need help finding the right service, contact Right Service Right Time. A service coordinator can help you find the most appropriate and available services. Phone (03) 378-2782 or 027-654-7788, email info@rightservice.org.nz or visit the Right Service Right Time website.
School support
- Ministry of Education – services and support available
HealthInfo recommends the following videos
- Whāraurau – Mental health services
This series of videos is designed to help rangatahi (young people) and their whānau (families) navigate their way through child and adolescent mental health services. The videos show examples of different kinds of therapies and health professionals who work in these services. They also include information about medications that are sometimes used to treat anxiety, depression and psychosis. Each video is around 5 minutes long.
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed November 2021.
SourcesReview key: HIAXC-538744
