|PIC1|"Mr Jitters is a story book for children aged four to twelve who have anxiety problems," said Jeanene Ecob, Southern Community Welfare's Executive Officer.
"We have been offering a counseling service for children experiencing anxiety for a number of years, but we were looking for a way of helping these children and their parents understand their own situation and then have a resource they could use at home to help relieve their anxiety," Jeanene said.
Around one in ten children struggle with anxiety with nearly 50 percent of adult sufferers reporting that their anxiety began in childhood.
"After a sleepless night thinking about how we could provide a resource to help children suffering from anxiety, I came up with the idea of a book and Mr Jitters was born," she said. "It was a bit ironical that my anxiety led me to come up with the idea for a book about the same subject for children which Kerry Moss, one of our staff then took and turned into a story," said Jeanene.
"Once we had finished the story we realized we needed an illustrator. Kerry saw a mother and her Year 11 daughter at a shopping centre showing someone else the daughter's drawings," Jeanene said. "Looking at them, Kerry knew that here was a young artist that had just the right skill to illustrate our book and so Anneliese Dickson was commissioned on the spot, almost," she said.
Mr Jitters is written to help children manage their anxious thoughts and feelings.
"Many children can't silence the voice of fear that whispers to them continually," Jeanene said. "This book gives their anxieties a name and a face and this type of externalisation often makes it easier for them to manage and defeat their fears," she said.
The book also contains notes for parents about the role they should take when their children experience anxiety as well as notes about how they should use the book.
Mr Jitters is being launched at 10am on Thursday, 11th December at Kareela Public
School.