Health Department Releases Third Video Focusing on Wellbeing
Published on August 27, 2025
6 Pillars series supports youth emotional health
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and partners today released the third video “Nutrition and Hydration” in the “6 Pillars for Emotional Wellbeing – A Parent’s Guide” video series. The series is designed to help families build healthy rhythms and routines into everyday life that support youth emotional health.
“We don’t often connect what we eat to our emotional wellbeing,” said Kerry Kernen, Health Director. “Good food is fuel for the body and the mind, and water is necessary to help us take full advantage of the benefits. As caring adults, we can’t forget the importance of the basics.”
Michelle Welch, Registered Dietitian and Lincoln Public Schools Wellness Facilitator, said, “The body tells us how important nutrition and hydration are. Without them, we don’t have good sleep. We don’t have a good mindset for the day. We don’t have the energy to exercise. Nutrition and hydration are key to us feeling good. Helping children recognize and listen to their body will help them feel better in their brain, help them feel better in their body and ultimately help them make better choices throughout the day.”
The ”6 Pillars for Emotional Wellbeing” video series features local and national health experts, partners and also parents. The series is available at lincoln.ne.gov/6Pillars, and contains three sections: the Problem, the Causes and the Skills. In addition to “Nutrition and Hydration,” videos on sleep and physical activity were released earlier this summer. A new video will follow each month through November.
The series focuses on six elements that are core emotional wellbeing including:
- 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 and 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 video series is one of the results of the 2022 Community Health Improvement Plan 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 worked with Bryan Health and CHI Health St. Elizabeth and numerous other partners to better understand emotional wellbeing in children and how to provide information and resources that address a critical need of local families. The result is a resource created by the community for the community.
The Health Department and partners also recently released CredibleMind, another wellbeing resource. It’s a new online platform designed to support mental wellbeing and provides evidence-based mental health resources that can be personalized to fit your needs. CredibleMind offers assessments and resources related to each of the six pillars.
Visit myhealthymind.crediblemind.com. It’s free, confidential and available 24/7.