Health Department Launches Videos Focusing on Wellbeing
Published on July 10, 2025
Six-part series designed to support youth emotional health
“This new video series empowers parents, caretakers, and children to develop conversations, rhythms, and daily routines that support emotional health,” said Mayor Gaylor Baird. “The series exemplifies how our Health team’s proactive collaboration with community partners supports our youth, strengthens families, and provides opportunities for all to lead stable, healthy lives.”
The “6 Pillars for Emotional Wellbeing – A Parent’s Guide” video series focuses on six core elements that include:
- Sleep – Sleep is a skill and learning what makes it good is important to your emotional health.
- Physical Activity –The skill of physical activity can be driven by your passions and interests, but a lack of it will impede your ability to be emotionally healthy.
- Nutrition/Hydration – A lack of fuel can affect how you are able to cope with emotional challenges in every part of your day. Good fuel that includes hydration is a part of growing your emotional resiliency and is a part of what drives your emotional health.
- Relational Connectedness – It is possible to form a genuine connection to a peer, mentor, or guardian, in a short period of time.
- Mastery – When you master something that interests you, your emotional wellbeing grows. Mastery can be something as simple as word problems, or as complicated as chess, cello, or running.
- Quieting – Your emotional wellbeing is connected to your ability to quiet your mind through rhythms like mindfulness, spiritual practice, connecting with nature, and more. The practice of mindfulness or spiritual exercise is growing a set of skills as well as your personal identity.
The videos, featuring local and national health experts, partners and parents, contain three sections – the Problem, the Causes and the Skills. The videos provide a context for caring adults to have conversations with the children in their lives and help build behaviors that support emotional wellbeing into everyday life.
The first pillar video released July 10 focuses on sleep and is available at
lincoln.ne.gov/6Pillars. The second video, focused on physical activity, will also be released in July. A new video will then follow each month through November.
Joining Mayor Gaylor Baird and Director Kernen at the news conference were:
- Dr. Luke Bossard, licensed Clinical Psychologist, Behavioral Pediatric and Family Therapy Program, LLC.
- Russ Gronewold, President and CEO, Bryan Health
- Tyler DeJong, President, CHI Health St. Elizabeth
“The Health Department worked in partnership with both hospital systems and numerous partners to better understand emotional wellbeing in children and how we can provide information and resources that address a critical need of our families,” said Kernen. “The result is a resource created by our community for our community.”
Dr. Bossard served as a consultant to the workgroup on this topic and provided the six pillars framework that is both practical and approachable for children, families and caring adults.
“When adolescents sleep, eat, engage in physical activities and rewarding hobbies, find quiet, and engage in healthy relationships, we provide opportunities for resiliency-building and built-in adaptive coping,” Dr. Bossard said. “It is my hope that our community will accept the challenge to implement healthy habits that will improve the mental health of our children and teens.”
The video series is one of the results of the 2022 Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) in which youth behavioral health was identified as a priority. The plan is an action-oriented process where the community determines a set of shared priorities and aligns efforts to make the greatest impact.
The Health Department collaborates with healthcare partners to develop the CHIP and the Community Health Assessment which informs it.
Gronewold said that collaboration among providers, hospitals, schools, the health department, families, and the network of dedicated non-profit organizations is necessary for initiatives like the video series to be successful.
“The 6 Pillars project is a tangible example of the deep relationships and commitment to collaboration we have here in Lincoln. The skills encompassed in this program can be taught at an early age and practiced for a lifetime – building resiliency and connection,” Gronewold said.
DeJong said the video series initiative directly aligns with CHI Health St. Elizabeth’s mission to build a healthier future for the community. Mental Health, depression and anxiety were identified as one of the top concerns of Lincoln families in our community health needs assessment, he said.
“We believe that the basic elements of mental and physical wellbeing are critical to a high functioning and healthy community and our teams are committed to closing the gap in collaboration with our community health and wellness providers,” DeJong said.
Organizations that participated in the 6 Pillars series include: Behavioral Pediatric and Family Therapy Program, Bryan Health, CHI Health St. Elizabeth, Centerpointe, Community Health Endowment, The Hub, Lincoln Public Schools, School Community Intervention and Prevention or SCIP, Malone Center, El Centro de las Americas, Partnership for a Healthy Nebraska, Lancaster County Medical Society, and Arias Neuropsychology.