Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Family/Health section. To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Mirsada Hoffmann Thriving Global Family: Supports parents raising children across cultures—helping families build emotional resilience, strengthen connection, and find steadiness in the face of change.
- Lee Eldrige The Athlete Tribe
- Dr. Michelle Wright Dr Michelle Wright is a British-trained General Practitioner and Director of HealthFirst, providing physical First Aid training and Mental Health First Aid training, as well as Health Education, throughout Switzerland (www.healthfirst.ch). She also has a regular radio show about health on World Radio Switzerland. Believing that prevention is better than cure and that we should be treating the root cause of illness, Dr Michelle is also a Lifestyle Medicine enthusiast.
- Birgit Suess is a Swiss-American who grew up between the US and Switzerland and speaks English, German and Swiss-German. Because of a worldwide shortage of Speech Therapists, she uses technology to connect special needs students around the world with English speaking Speech Therapists. With almost 20 years of experience as a Speech Therapist and 10 years experience with Teletherapy, she is a pioneer in the Teletherapy world. Her personal specialty is working on social language with high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum. Her passion is finding new and innovative ways to help children with special needs.
- Dr. Irina Schurov is a Nutritional Neuroscientist with a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) and over 20 years’ experience in science and health-providing services. She created and founded LiveRight, an initiative to help others through nutrition and wellbeing strategies. By building an educational platform around healthy eating habits, by restoring the relationships between people and food, by supporting your individual circumstances and through personalized coaching in nutrition, she wants to help you and your family achieve the optimal balance between help and life.
- Dr. Penny Fraser is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland
As someone who works closely with international families navigating the ups and downs of life abroad, Mirsada Hoffmann connected with knowitall to share her experience, a great value to our international community here in Switzerland. Her work centers on supporting parents raising children across cultures—helping families build emotional resilience, strengthen connection, and find steadiness in the face of change.
We caught up with Mirsada and asked her a few questions.
What has been the inspiration behind Thriving Global Family?
I started Thriving Global Family because, as a mother of four, I saw firsthand how layered and emotionally complex international life can be—for children and parents alike. Every move affected our family in different ways. What worked for one transition didn’t necessarily work for the next. Concerns shifted as the kids grew, and I came to understand just how deeply my own emotional state impacted their ability to adjust and thrive.
Parenting is already a complex job—even in one language, one culture, and one school system. Add the layers of international living—new countries, unfamiliar languages, shifting educational expectations—and it can quickly become overwhelming. While the global lifestyle offers incredible opportunities, the harder, more human aspects are often hidden or dismissed. This can leave families—especially parents—feeling isolated.
I started this work to create the kind of support I wish I’d had: community, connection, and real conversations that help families feel seen in both the joy and the struggle.
By Dr Mecky McNeil and Dr Michelle Wright from HealthFirst
There are so many things that our young people have on their mind these days; reasons why they might struggle with their mental health. But perhaps one of biggest stressors adolescents face is adolescence itself! Can you remember the rollercoaster of yours?
So much is going on for our young people during these formative years. There are changes in physical development, the main one being puberty itself - the development of secondary sex characteristics, starting periods, changes in height, weight, and appearance. All these impact body image and self-esteem. And then psychological and cognitive development - the development of abstract thinking and advanced reasoning. The development of knowledge, skills, and problem solving, which helps the young person understand the world around them and make sense of where they fit in. And of course, social development - the development of their personal identity and autonomy. Exploring and becoming comfortable with their sexuality. Forming important friendships and relationships and becoming independent from the family unit. Recognition in their peer group becomes important – what others think about them. And accompanying all of this are big developmental changes going on in the teenage brain which is not fully mature until the mid-20s.
The good news is that most young people get through these changes and master any challenges without too many hitches. But if a young person is struggling with their mental health during this important time, their development can be affected. So, picking up the signs that they may be struggling and intervening early is key.
By Dr Mecky McNeil and Dr Michelle Wright from HealthFirst
As we enter the second month of the Ukraine crisis, the feelings of concern, distress and uncertainty are becoming more challenging by the day. In response to this, we have prepared a series of podcasts to offer help and support to those in need now.
These podcasts cover the important topics of making sense of emotions in uncertain times, offer strategies to help safeguard mental health and in our third podcast we offer advice for how to talk to children about the invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukraine crisis: making sense of your feelings in uncertain times
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1961687/10305759
The Ukraine crisis: Finding safety in uncertainty: coping strategies to help safeguard your mental health
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1961687/10309260
The Ukraine crisis: Advice for talking to children about the invasion of Ukraine
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1961687/10312752
We hope you find these podcasts helpful.
By Dr Michelle Wright, Director of HealthFirst.ch
You never know when your First Aid or Basic Life support skills could be called upon. Every week I hear stories from friends, colleagues, and patients about how they have had to react in a medical emergency to help someone in need.
Recently I had the privilege of working with the Swiss Resuscitation Council to translate and record the voiceover for their BLS Quick video, published on their website: resuscitation.ch
BLS stands for Basic Life Support and BLS Quick training is aimed at the general public to raise awareness about:
• When someone might need Basic Life Support.
• How to alert the appropriate emergency services.
• And how to begin providing CPR and using a defibrillator, under the guidance of the telephone operator on the other end of the line.
Collapse
The video is well worth a watch. It runs through a scenario where a woman is walking in the forest and comes across a man who has collapsed whilst running. She shouts for help, hoping that someone nearby hears her. She then checks to see if the man is responsive and breathing. Upon finding that he isn’t, she calls 144 for an ambulance and speaks with the telephone operator (the role that I played).
Once advised about the location, the operator immediately deploys an ambulance. Then, the operator then stays with the woman and with her phone on speaker mode, guides her through resuscitation.
By Dr Mecky McNeil and Dr Michelle Wright from HealthFirst
The power of human connection: creating meaningful moments through kindness, gratitude, and authentic conversations
Over the last 18 months of the pandemic, we have all experienced what it is like to be separated from our friends, family, and colleagues. Even with the lifting of some travel restrictions, it is still challenging to visit our relatives and loved ones in other regions across the world. What is more, despite the easing of measures, many of us still find ourselves remote working. And even with workplaces beginning to open, the expectation is that we will be working in some hybrid form for the foreseeable future. Outside of Europe, many people are still finding themselves in even more challenging situations.
Across the world, COVID-19 has left millions feeling isolated and lonely, and struggling with their health as a direct consequence of this isolation. Studies have shown that loneliness has the same negative impact on health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or obesity. It is associated with heart disease and inflammation, as well as having effects on mental health including irritability, depression, and insomnia.
Loneliness is the emotion we feel when we are isolated and separated from our people. It is a painful and vital evolutionary response that ensures we return to the safety of our family and our community. People who feel lonely are often ashamed to admit it, even to those close to them. And being surrounded by others does not protect from loneliness. Loneliness is often paired with feelings of self-blame which can drive the emotion of shame. This means that those who are suffering often cover it up and push away the very people they most want, or need, to be connected to.
The fact is that as humans, we need social connection and to feel like we belong. We are designed to be connected with each other and to help and support each other, and we see these instincts shining through even more strongly during times of crisis.
Social connection can lower symptoms of anxiety and depression, help regulate our emotions, lead to higher self-esteem and empathy, and boost our immune system. So, by neglecting our need to connect with others, we are putting our health at risk.
Connecting with someone who is lonely can be a lifeline for them. Through simple acts of kindness, the expression of gratitude, and reaching out and engaging in authentic conversations, we can make a difference to someone in their moment of need. And another bonus: these simple acts can make us feel good too.
