COLUMBUS, Ohio — May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a series of books aimed at improving the mental health of children is now making its way into central Ohio classrooms after being released earlier this month.
"The Adventures of Gus and Pasha" by local author and Child Mental Health Activist Cathy Studer teaches young children how to build mental and emotional health by mastering six habits — perspective, resilience, gratitude, self-compassion, forgiveness and hope.
Students from Arrowhead Elementary gathered with Studer for a special reading and some fun exercises to help them learn to deal with life's hurts and challenges.
First-grade teacher Jen Hedrick said that she's seeing an increase in mental health challenges among children and that Studer's books are an important tool for educators.
"We see a lot more mental health issues... You can't teach the students the curriculum until they're mentally and emotionally stable and so we're making sure that the kids are in a good place for learning," Hedrick said.
Studer's books are endorsed by a pediatric psychologist and have been adopted into the curriculum of the Central Ohio Boys and Girl's Club. The series follows her first book, "Broken to Beautifully Whole," which documents her path to healing from childhood abuse.
"Cathy does a really good job of bringing to light different issues that kids have and ways they can incorporate solutions to their anger and also how they can bring down their anxiety," Hedrick said.
You can find "The Adventures of Gus and Pasha" on Amazon.com. The six plushy characters from the series are sold exclusively at catheystuder.com/books-children_health.