EDUCATOR MENTAL HEALTH LITERACY Accomplishing the board’s mental health goals will require a concerted and coordinated effort by all parties involved. A top priority is the promotion of mental health literacy at all levels of school board staff. By developing a standard, board-wide suicide prevention protocol, and hosting professional development sessions for educators, we can ensure that all staff will be working at the same level of literacy and understanding. This will allow for the creation of a mental health safety net that will in turn help increase preventative mental health care to help avoid crises altogether. Parental mental health literacy will be bolstered by the launching of a special mental health website offering valuable information they can use at home to identify and address any possible mental health issues in their children. The board will also host sessions for parents to ask questions and get more information on wellness. IMPLEMENTATION OF MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION AND PREVENTION PROGRAMMING The implementation of our various mental health strategies will be on a solid foundation of evidence-based research and best practices regarding the bolstering of mental health awareness. By combining our own mental health curriculum to help bolster resiliency within our student body, and by drawing on the community resources available as identified by our resouce mapping efforts, we can help bring the ideals set out in the board’s mental health strategy to life and make its goals our reality. Priority Areas/ Strategic Themes Key Activities Faith-Based Intervention Needed Resources Timeline Responsibility ORGANIZATIONAL CONDITIONS Safety Net/ Suicide Prevention Create suicide prevention protocol Professional development for administration in specific suicide prevention protocols Suicide prevention protocol will have Religious Coordinator look over and add prayers and passages to the protocol Team of experts getting together Time at Principal’s meeting Present 2014 Rebecca Paulsen Tony Cosentino Mary-Lise Rowat Rebecca Paulsen
Emergency emails created to send out to administration in case of emergency Creation of a ‘team of experts’ in times of emergencies ASIST training May 2014 Tony Cosentino Gleason Mental Health team Early Student Intervention Program leaders to endorse mental health and addiction initiatives and allow 5 minutes at the end of teacher professional development days to promote mental health curriculum or make the connection between mental health and wellness in the curriculum Mental health curriculum being implemented in schools Have student wellness imbedded into the BIP Have staff wellness imbedded into the BIP Collaboration day to connect wellness support staff with principals to clarify roles and responsibilities Wellness meetings planned to create an effective pathway to care The Board created mental health curriculum Faith support staff will be included in this day as individuals who support faith and wellness Planing Team Meeting March 18, 2014 October 2014 November 2014 Rebecca Paulsen Mark Searson Rebecca Paulsen Creators of Mental Health Curriculum Mark Searson Rebecca Paulsen Mary-Lise Rowat Mark Searson
Parents The Parent Involvement Committee supports mental health through grant funding and promotion of mental health on their website Create 3 unique parent engagement ventures for increasing literacy of mental health and addiction Include mental health/addiction booths at high school talent shows Father Holly will speak on ‘Faith and Mental Health’ whenever possible to explore faith and mental health Pro grants Principal support Spring 2015 Spring 2015 Hazel Mitchel Rebecca Paulsen Julie Huckabone Principals on Mental health team CAPACITY BUILDING Safety Net/ Suicide Prevention Professional development for all staff on the specific suicide protocol for RCCDSB for mental health team Prepare prayer to the training within a Catholic context 1-hour presentation to be provided during meeting time To be completed by December 2013 Rebecca Paulsen Principals Dunne Student Intervention Roll out Supporting Minds document for teacher information Roll out mental health curriculum to all schools Specialty to look at wellbeing in the curriculum for all Search for 8 curriculum for mental health as requested by highschools Work with Peggy Dunne and Jason Dedo to ensure that a presentation on Supporting Minds includes church wellness teaching Spring 2015 December 2014 Spring 2015 Spring 2016 Mental health team
Support grassroots resiliency initiative Identify and support SAC staff attending 3 trainings/webinars Spring 2016 December 2015 Rebecca Paulsen Parents Create website Information session on anxiety, social relationships and addictions Large section on wellness website linking to faith resources Spring 2015 Spring 2016 Rebecca Paulsen Mark Searson Clint Young IMPLEMENTATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION AND PREVENTION PROGRAMMING Safety Net/Suicide Prevention Embed information on evidence based research on current best practices for talking about suicide with students in classroooms (Supporting Minds Document) Resource Mapping system chart to make easy referrals to promote mental health Professional development session Spring 2015 Rebecca Paulsen Rebecca Paulsen Watters Early Student Intervention Gather data on the “Making Things Better” program - evidence-informed initiative Mental health team will choose an evidence-based social skills program and support classrooms in practicing social skills daily Identify teachers with mental health expertise and support Principals are interested in this program so we will evaluate effectiveness Program Classroom December 2014 September 2016 September 2016 Mary Catherine Brisco John Freemark Christina Brown Mary-Lise Rowat Peter Gleason Patti Watters
them in delivering expertise to staff Expert teachers Rebecca Paulsen Parents Develop intervention with information for parents of young children on starting school “Get ready for school” Mental health in young children is evidence based September 2015 Christina Brown Huckabone Mental Health and Addictions Steering Committee A thank you to the dedicated members of the Mental Health Team.