Tips for dealing with scary news with children and young people

Tuesday morning's school shooting in Vantaa is shocking. Especially for children and young people, news and social media publications can cause fear. The anxiety caused by the news is often caused by the child's concern about the well-being of the child himself or his loved ones.

The Mannerheim Children's Protection Association gives tips on how to discuss shocking news at home, taking into account the child's age. Read MLL's instructions here. UNICEF has also published tips for handling the matter. UNICEF's instructions can be found from this link.

The South Karelia welfare area (Ekhva) has its own crisis help pages. These pages provide advice on, among other things, the following:

• Talk to the child about what happened (taking the age level into account) and be close to the child, hold him in your arms.
• A child reacts to crises in the same way as an adult.
• Encourage the child to express his feelings, to cry if he cries. Encourage drawing and playing.
• Don't hide your own feelings too much.
• Stick to daily routines, it makes it easier for the child.

If schoolchildren and students need to talk about what happened or if the situation is distressing, they can contact their school curator or health nurse.

If the situation causes anxiety and arouses the need to discuss, you can also contact the social and crisis emergency in South Karelia (tel. 040 651 1828).

Read the announcement on Ekhva's website from this link.

Updated 3.4. at 8.38:XNUMX am: Updated Ekhva's spelling and added a link to Ekhva's pages.