Promoting well-being in schools
The Simcoe County District School Board is paying attention to the importance of staff and student wellbeing, so much in fact that the upcoming November PD day will focus on mental health and wellness.
In addition, the board, after much input from trustees, accessed an additional $300,000 from reserve funds, to be distributed to our schools over the next three years to be used for new curriculum and release time for school mental health teams to meet and learn about embedding daily mindfulness exercises into the regular day.
I would like to share some statistics taken from the 2015 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, which outlines the percentage of students in Ontario and in Simcoe County who are experiencing mental health issues and how these numbers are increasing. Keep in mind these statistics only reflect the reported cases as we all know that there are many students who do not come forward to seek help. Also keep in mind that the Simcoe County numbers quoted here are consistent and not higher than other Boards in the Province.
• 17 per cent of students rate their mental health as fair or poor. This has increased dramatically during the past 10 years (11 per cent in 2007).
• 22 per cent of students visited a health care professional (doctor, nurse, counsellor, etc.) for a mental health matter at least once during the past year.
• 34 per cent of students report moderate-to-serious levels of psychological stress (i.e. anxiety and/or depression) and 14 per cent report a serious level of psychological distress.
• 12 per cent of students have experienced serious thoughts of suicide in the past year and three per cent report a suicide attempt in the past year.
Our elementary teachers are implementing a program called “MindUP”, (www.thehawnfoundation.org,) which offers easy strategies for helping students focus their attention, improve self-regulation skills, build resilience to stress, and develop a positive mind-set in both school and life. The lessons teach students about their brain and why they might sometimes feel angry, sad or even anxious. If we can foster this kind of learning in elementary school it will hopefully prevent issues from growing and manifesting into all-consuming difficulties at the secondary school level. Our schools are working to embed stress reducing, calming exercises into the day such as deep breathing, meditation and yoga. If you have any expertise in this area contact your local school as they would gladly welcome support in this area. As a parent, continue to check in on your student by asking questions like, “What did you find hard to understand today?” It encourages problem solving together. Once again, don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or the school’s guidance department if you have a concern.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at 705-229-6217 or email achandler@trustee.scdsb.on.ca. You can also follow me on Twitter at @annie4education or visit my Facebook page SCDSB Trustee Annie Chandler.
