Ask A Pro Live: Opening Up To Parents

Opening up to parents/guardians/carers about mental health can be a really tricky beast. When we want to tell the people that care for us what's going on, it can be so difficult managing reactions and expectations. Preparing for these conversations with parents/guardians/carers can sometimes help to make things go more smoothly, but what is the best way to do this? And how can we get ready for conversation number two?!  What do you find hardest about having those conversations with your parents? 

This month our Ask A Pro Live event is with the ever-delightful @Janine-RO ! As Janine is a parent herself and a moderator in the ReachOut Parents Forum (as well as here with the cool kids), we are thrilled to have her share her wisdom with us about how to speak to parents about mental health and our experiences. A bit more about Janine here:

Janine has been with ReachOut for about 8 months now. She's super  passionate about mental health and has worked in disability research, community services and mental health amongst other things!  She has 2 kids, an 11 year old girl and 3 year old boy,  and raised her daughter as a sole parent for the first 4 years of her life. She probably stuffs up regularly as a parent but hopefully keeps learning every day. 

We're going to be focusing on how we can talk to our parents/guardians/carers about what we're going through, making the most of these conversations and looking after ourselves if things don't go as planned.

If you've got a question for Janine be sure to ask it in the google form below!

Looking forward to chatting with you all LIVE on August 20th 7pm - 9pm AEDT