What Resources Does UNICEF Offer for Children's Mental Health and Parenting?

Updated

UNICEF offers a dedicated Parenting section with tips and resources designed to help you support your child's mental health and well-being—and to look after yourself as a caregiver. You can reach it from the UNICEF homepage through the "Mental health and well-being" feature, which links directly to UNICEF Parenting. The resources are aimed at parents and caregivers of children from early childhood through adolescence, and they are free to browse on unicef.org.

What you'll find on UNICEF Parenting

The mental health and well-being page is described as offering "tips and resources to help you support your child and yourself." In practice, that means two tracks of content:

  • Supporting your child — guidance on talking about feelings, recognizing when a child is struggling, and responding in everyday situations.
  • Supporting yourself — resources for caregiver stress and the emotional demands of parenting.

UNICEF frames this work within its broader mission: the organization works in over 190 countries and territories "to save children's lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence." Parenting resources sit alongside that mission rather than apart from it.

How to find the resources

  1. Go to unicef.org.
  2. On the homepage, locate the "Mental health and well-being" feature in the main content area. Its link text reads "Tips and resources to help you support your child and yourself," with a button labeled "Go to UNICEF Parenting."
  3. Follow that link to reach the UNICEF Parenting site.

Expected result: you land on UNICEF Parenting, where the mental health and well-being material is organized for parents and caregivers.

If you can't find it: the homepage rotates its featured items, so the mental health block may not always be visible at the top. Use the site search (the search form at the top of the page) and enter terms like "mental health" or "parenting."

Other UNICEF resources worth knowing about

The homepage's "Spotlight" section collects key campaigns and initiatives. Two are especially relevant if your interest goes beyond day-to-day parenting:

Resource What it covers Where to find it
UNICEF Parenting Helping parents give children the best start in life Linked from the homepage and the mental health feature
Convention on the Rights of the Child The most widely ratified human rights treaty in history Spotlight section
U-Report UNICEF's community for young people, by young people Spotlight section
Sustainable Development Goals The 17 goals and how they relate to children Spotlight section

For adolescents who want peer support rather than parent-facing guidance, U-Report is the more relevant entry point.

Staying informed

UNICEF offers a monthly newsletter described as "a monthly digest that broadens your outlook, with children's rights kept in focus." You can sign up from the "Subscribe to UNICEF's newsletter" section at the bottom of the homepage. The site lists a Subscribe link but does not state a price, so treat cost and any account requirements as unconfirmed until you reach the sign-up page.

A practical note

These are general parenting and well-being resources, not a substitute for professional care. If a child's mental health needs clinical attention, use UNICEF's material as background reading and consult a qualified professional in your area.