No Wrong Door: We All Have a Part to Play
23rd May 2025
To mark Mental Health Awareness Month, Hilda Campbell at COPE Scotland shares knowledge and resources that could provide early intervention mental health support to parents and their families. No Wrong Door partners are encouraged to use these tools with the people they support.
At COPE Scotland, we have transitioned from providing one-to-one services to focusing on population-based initiatives that aim to enhance mental health and wellbeing. Our mission is to provide tools, ideas, and resources that support individuals, families, communities, and organisations in achieving the conditions that can help promote better mental health. These are not a replacement for professional advice.
We want to share some of these resources, which have a specific focus on confidence, with our No Wrong Door colleagues and others. Child poverty can severely affect self-confidence, leading to feelings of low self-esteem and social exclusion. Our resources, although designed for adults, can also empower parents to serve as positive role models for their children. By boosting parents’ confidence, we indirectly help children develop a stronger sense of self-belief and resilience. We hope you find the following of value to share with those you are working with and supporting.
What do you want the confidence to do, and what do you need to learn to do it?
The first step to increased confidence is being clear about what we want the confidence to do. We may need to learn something new, apply that learning and then practice. Keep in mind that it takes time and practice for confidence to grow. The following resources will facilitate conversations around confidence-building, goal setting and maintaining boundaries.
Take some time to build confidence and self-belief.
Things happen that can knock our confidence and self-belief. The elements in this resource can provide a starting point for you to become your own confidence architect.
Your Confidence Jigsaw Lid
Imagine a jigsaw puzzle of a more confident you. What are the pieces within your control which you can bring into your life to help you take the steps needed to fulfil your potential? The Jigsaw Lid for self-confidence can offer a place to start.
Goal Setting
Once we decide what we want to do, setting realistic goals becomes important. It is better to take small steps regularly than large steps whenever we remember. This fun resource can help us in planning our goals.
Check in with your confidence levels regularly.
The Confidence Dude is a simple tool to check in with our daily confidence levels and reflect on what reduces our confidence and what helps build it. When considering our mental health and ability to manage stress, it’s essential to invest time in building our confidence to believe in ourselves again and our capacity to overcome challenges or mitigate their impact.
Click the pictures below to download the resource.
It is okay to say no.
It is easier to set boundaries at the outset; however, this does not always happen until we realise our boundaries are being pushed too far. The tips in this piece offer ideas on how we can set boundaries which work for us as well as others.
We are hosting a free workshop on setting healthy boundaries on the 17th of November. Find out more and sign up here.
Tips to avoid ‘Doom-scrolling.’
We know we live in challenging times. Being constantly reminded of this robs us of our energy to face the challenges before us. Avoiding doom scrolling is one step towards protecting your mental health from an onslaught of negative news.
Positive affirmations can help.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that we can overcome obstacles. Affirmation cards can offer us inspiration when we feel we need it. This link leads to a set of affirmation cards designed to boost your confidence. This can also be a helpful activity when working with others to help them come up with ideas for their own positive affirmations, which feel more personal to their life. Or why not try making a family affirmation jar? This is a fun activity which can involve all the family. The video in this piece offers ideas on how to make an affirmation jar.
Our financial health can impact our mental health.
Worrying about bills, debt, being able to replace things which are broken, having enough money for a social life, and for children to attend events, all can impact our mental health. The booklet linked here does not replace professional advice, but it may offer some valuable ideas.
You will also find lots of practical help on financial wellbeing on the Money & Pension Service website.
Self-care counts.
Too often, our self-care is neglected because we are too busy dealing with other things. When we are parents, it’s helpful for our children to see us practising self-care, as this helps them recognise that looking after themselves matters. This helps increase children’s feelings of self-worth and creates habits they will take into adulthood. This self-care scorecard is a fun way for the whole family to track their daily self-care activities.
Come along to our free self-care workshop on the 18th of June to explore practical tools that can be easily integrated into daily routines. Find out more and sign up.
Joy and happiness against the odds.
Life can be challenging, and it can affect our mental health and well-being in numerous ways. While it may seem counterintuitive to discuss joy and happiness during tough times, it’s precisely when we face challenges that we need joy and happiness the most. These resources provide ideas on how to cultivate more joy and happiness in our lives.
Life can sometimes feel overwhelming, making it difficult to consider taking on anything new. However, we don’t need to tackle everything at once; taking small, regular steps can lead us further than infrequent, large leaps, which can leave us feeling exhausted. If your confidence has been shaken for a while, it’s important to acknowledge that rebuilding it will take time, and that’s perfectly okay.
The ideas presented here, along with other resources on the COPE Scotland website, were developed by listening to what mattered to people. When collaborating with others, it’s essential to remember that everyone is different, and we all heal at our own pace. We hope the resources provided here are valuable to you. Feel free to share them.
Get involved!
GCVS is delighted to be working with COPE Scotland again to offer workshops on Self-Care to the Third Sector workforce, in response to the demand and needs voiced in the previous series. We aim to foster connections and create a space where colleagues can develop the skills and confidence to promote their own well-being.
Third Sector No Wrong Door partners are eligible to attend all of these workshops at no cost. Find out more here.
If you are a No Wrong partner and have an idea for a blog that you’d like to share with the network, please email Susan.Robertson@gcvs.org.uk. We are always looking for new ideas and content.