Educators are delivering a series of lessons for students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 focused on student mental health and well-being.
The lessons focus on the ABCs of Mental Health:
- Acknowledge
- Bridge
- Connection
"The desired outcome of the ABCs of Mental Health lessons is to improve and support mental health of students, and overall the connection that students feel to their classroom, their communities and their schools," said Patricia Marra-Stapleton, Mental Health Lead, York Region District School Board.
Teachers are delivering the lessons before the end of September in elementary schools and by October 15, 2021 in secondary schools.
"I think I've been really able to understand how to talk properly about the experiences that I've had through the pandemic. My class is able to do this activity, we talked about how the pandemic affected our learning, how it is that we've actually been able to deal with our mental health, and I think we've used some actual healthy ways of talking about the things we experienced, in a community where I felt safe, and I felt respected," said Richard, a Grade 11 student at Milliken Mills H.S.