Every parent or caregiver hopes that their child never has to go through a disaster or emergency event. However, it’s likely that at some point, your child will face some kind of event like this.

As a parent or caregiver, you can help lower the impact of a disaster or emergency by making a disaster plan, helping your child or teen learn healthy and effective coping skills, and developing healthy habits to reduce stress.

Make a plan

Being organized can help you and your child or teen have a sense of control before, during, and after experiencing a disaster or emergency event.

• Make an emergency plan and an emergency kit together.
• Talk with your child or teen about the different types of disasters or emergencies (like flood, fire, pandemic, power outage) and what everyone can do to feel safe when they happen.
• Practice your emergency plan. Practice how to get out of the house, who to call, and what to do in different situations.
• Talk about what to do if you’re not together when a disaster or emergency happens and how you will connect with each other.

Building coping skills

Practicing healthy coping strategies with your child or teen in daily life can help them build the skills they need to respond and recover from a disaster or emergency event.

As a parent or caregiver, you can support your child or teen to learn different coping strategies by:

• Modelling healthy coping skills and using them every day. For example, when you experience strong emotions, talk about how you’re feeling and what coping skills you’re going to try. You might say: “I feel sad that I broke my favourite cup. I’m going to take a few deep breaths and then clean it up.”
• Talking about and trying different coping strategies when you and your child or teen aren’t feeling stressed. It’s easier to learn a new skill when you’re relaxed and calm.

Find fun ways to practice and try new coping strategies together. For example, you and your child or teen can try:

• relaxation strategies, like breathing techniques, blowing bubbles, or listening to calming music
• creative strategies, like colouring, creating something with modelling clay, or playing an instrument
• active strategies, like dancing, going for a walk outside, or skipping
• social strategies, like watching funny videos with friends, playing a game, or calling friends and family
• thinking strategies, like using a gratitude jar, challenging unhelpful thoughts, or creating coping cards

Healthy habits for reducing stress

The best way to cope with stress and build resilience is to help your child or teen develop healthy habits:

• Encourage and provide opportunities for daily physical activity, playing, or getting together with friends.
• Help your child or teen find and do activities or creative things they enjoy.
• Provide healthy food choices that include vegetables, fruit, protein, and whole grains. Try to limit processed foods like ice cream or sugary drinks.
• Encourage a healthy amount of sleep and healthy sleep habits. Have a consistent sleep schedule (wake up and go to bed at the same time every day), practice calming bedtime activities (like quiet music, books, and no electronic screens), and have a regular bedtime routine. Your routine could be something like a snack followed by a bath or shower, brushing teeth, dim lights, calming activity, and then lights out.

Help your child or teen identify their stressors and learn ways to manage their stress. Ask them:

• What makes you feel stressed? Are there things, people, places, activities, or sounds that make you feel stressed?
• How do you know when you feel stressed?
• How does your body feel when it’s stressed?
• What emotions do you feel? Where do you feel them?
• How do you act?
• What are 3 things you can do to help you feel better?

COPING: Building blocks for coping with a disaster or emergency

To help your child or teen prepare emotionally to cope with a disaster or emergency event, remember COPING:

• Communicate. Model and encourage positive communication skills like listening, accepting all feelings, resolving conflicts, and watching for body language and tone.
• Optimism. Having an optimistic (hopeful) attitude can help you be more resilient during stressful events. Help your child or teen develop an optimistic attitude by practicing gratitude, helpful thinking, and mindfulness every day.
• Participate in family and community events. Doing things with others in your community can help you and your child or teen build social support.
• Identify healthy coping skills. Not all strategies work for everyone or every situation. You can help your child or teen develop and build strong coping skills by modelling healthy coping strategies and finding ways to include coping strategies in your daily routine.
• Nurture and support healthy emotional development. Encourage your child or teen to talk about their feelings and express them in healthy ways.
• Get help. Let your child or teen know that it’s OK to ask for help when they’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed.