Cuddly characters - Worry Monsters - helping children cope with stress and anxiety across Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire County Council’s children’s social care workers and virtual school have teamed up with Oxfordshire resident Shirley Nelder and her group of volunteer knitters.

For the last few months, Shirley’s team have been creating the cuddly characters or Worry Monsters, which will be used by therapists and social workers to help children who have experienced developmental problems, abuse, neglect, bereavement, or trauma. The worry monsters are designed to help children overcome stress and anxiety.

Cllr Liz Brighouse, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for children, education and youth services, said: “These hand-made monsters will be used by our social care team when working with children in care and young people to help resolve any worries they have. The monsters aren’t really scary. They’re designed to be fun and encourage interaction.

“Sometimes writing down a worry can be helpful in itself. So, when a worrying or troubling thought comes into a child's mind, they can scribble down their thoughts, or draw a picture and feed it to their worry monster. Now that’s fun. And it will hopefully help them understand and overcome their anxiety with support from the social worker.”

Leanne Manning, an Oxfordshire County Council social worker, said: “I know one of the local children, Casey. She loves her worry monster. It has pride of place in her bedroom, helping her and reducing anxiety.”

Shirley Nelder said: “I was talking to a friend about charitable causes, and she mentioned the worry monsters. After showing pictures of them to my daughter, who works with children, we came up with the idea of creating a crowd of ‘cuddlees,’ which we’d donate to Oxfordshire County Council’s social care team. I can’t thank the dedicated volunteers enough who, in their own time, have created these wonderful characters; each one so different and individual.”