Headspace Albury-Wodonga youth group shares COVID-19 mental health tips

From learning how to juggle with old socks to better breathing, basketball and even brushing up your balance skills, the organisation has been sharing a series of tips and video clips to support bodies and brains.

Members of the youth reference group have been actively involved in sharing the small things that can make a big difference to wellbeing for Mental Health Week 2020.

Community development worker Bree Cross said the online roll-out would continue in the lead-up to Headspace Day on October 21.

Gateway Health provided the funding to help increase knowledge around COVID-19 testing in young people and the wider community.

The youth reference group has conducted a Q&A with Albury-Wodonga Health to help inform young people and remove the barriers that might put them off getting tested, Ms Cross said.

"We recognise the events and effects of COVID-19 are washing over people's mental health and we want to share the small things our young people are doing each day to keep their healthy headspace," she said.

Ms Cross said the pandemic had affected headspace's capacity to go out into other spaces such as schools.

"We've created these online resources that we've sent directly to schools to use as part of their curriculum or for students to access in their own time," she said.

"It's been very well-received."

The fun and easy-to-follow videos can also be found on headspace Albury-Wodonga's website and Facebook page.

In one of the videos, headspace youth counsellor Georgia Vujic talks about how parents and caregivers can support young people to cope during a pandemic with 'The five outs of being in a pandemic':

Get it out - get out your feelings; get outside; get help (outsource the load, give help); get out of breath (once a day is fine), and get reliable information, she advises.

"And whatever occurred today, hug them tonight, say goodnight and try again tomorrow," she concludes.