Mum of two, Jenny Chesworth, has established the Be Happy Hub, a mental health resource centre for children, after suffering from anxiety for 22 years. With reports of an ‘explosion’ in children’s mental health referrals, Jenny is offering a helping hand to children stuck on waiting lists and being turned away for support.
The Hub provides fun, engaging and printable resources for children to learn about mental health and explore their thoughts and emotions. Jenny, who worked for a mental health charity for five years before launching the Hub, is hoping to get the word out about her Hub to help more children across the UK.
“By not supporting children now, we are walking into a future epidemic,” said Jenny. “We have a responsibility to help our children now, we have the knowledge and now we have the tools and resources.”
The Be Happy Hub currently boasts over 800 resources for children age 0-11 with teen resources set to launch soon. These activities cover everything from anxiety to Tourette’s, toilet anxiety, EBSA (school avoidance), grief, separation anxiety and much more. There are also free eGuides and resources.
Jenny launched the Hub after her son, Zach, now 6, developed anxiety during the pandemic. She began creating tools and activities to help him at home and after a year they had created 150 resources together.
Since launching the Hub, Jenny has gone onto work with the NHS, bereavement charities, domestic abuse charities, schools, hospices and more.
Jenny often reflects on how different her life would have been had she received professional support or even had some of her resources to hand after her first panic attack. “I wish I had been taught these tools and techniques when I was younger. Instead, I was taken from doctor to doctor who mostly labelled me a hypochondriac,” said Jenny.
Now, Jenny is managing her anxiety extremely well and her son, Zach, is thriving too. “He’s even joined a football team,” Jenny said. “That wouldn’t have been possible three years ago!”
With The Guardian recently reporting an ‘explosion’ in children’s mental health referrals and YoungMind offering solutions to #EndTheWait, Jenny Chesworth has responded to the crisis by establishing the Be Happy Hub, a mental health resource centre for children. The Hub provides fun, engaging and printable resources for children to learn about mental health and explore their thoughts and emotions. Jenny, who has worked with the NHS, bereavement charities, domestic abuse charities, schools, hospices and more, is hoping to get the word out about her Hub to help more children across the UK.
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.