ROCKY VIEW— Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic was front and centre at the most recent Rocky View Schools board of trustees meeting.
Rocky View Schools' Enhanced Supports for Mental Health Mobile Team was on hand at the Jan. 21 board of trustees meeting to highlight the important role it plays for students, parents and staff.
The team works in collaboration with schools and families across the division to support students with significant mental health and complex trauma concerns— These youths account for about one per cent of students who may be struggling the most in the classroom, said team psychologist Crystal Dittrick.
She explained each student receives individual support based on their needs, and from these experiences, the Mobile Team can grow its knowledge base to help students in the future by finding effective ways to provide stress relief and coping support.
"There's so many places to implement strategies in our health curriculum and throughout the curriculum— It [mental health] shouldn't be a one-off," Dittrick said. "I typically give strategies that can be used in the whole class— What will be essential for you will benefit from the other kids."
The Mobile Team's goal is to support students in natural and inclusive environments that embrace proactive supports for mental health.
"It's advantageous to support students within their natural environments and that our work as a mobile team is not about moving students to a new system, but having the current system that they're within so they can maintain connections with their peers," Dittrick said. "That really helps to enhance their mental health."
The team is focussed on building relationships in schools, using collaboration and consultation, focussing on the individualized strengths of students when creating supports, meeting staff, students and family where they are at and bringing unique perspectives together to create mental health supports for those in need.
The Mobile Team has also been working with Cochrane Mental Health to build a partnership aimed at streamlining services together to enhance support strategies and ensure there are active mental health supports in the community and the classroom when possible.
One of the key aspects of the team is creating classroom spaces where everyone has mental health coping support, Dittrick said.
During the presentation to the board of trustees videos from students, staff and parents who have worked with the Mental Health Mobile Team were shown to demonstrate the role they have played in the division.
"Health is really a state of complete physical, mental and social wellness and wellbeing. It's not merely the absence of mental illness," Dittrick said. "Mental health is really about the way that we are in the world ... The way that we feel, the way that we think, the way that we act, the way that we cope— Our mental health isn't fixed."
She added mental illness refers to a number of diagnosable disorders that are health conditions that involve changes in thoughts, moods and behaviours and impair functioning in one or more areas, including in school and the community.
The Mental Health Mobile Team uses a holistic and flexible approach that builds on individual students' strengths to design a multi-tiered support plan to support mental health while creating an inclusive, safe and caring learning environment.
She added individuals can experience poor mental health without a mental illness or can have positive mental health with a mental illness.
Mental Health Mobile Team positive behaviour coach Kerri Woods said stress and trauma can also lead to students acting out in the classroom.
Woods said the Mobile Team has engaged in Adverse Childhood Experiences to understand how trauma is impacting students' health, social and learning abilities. She added the Mental Health Mobile Team believes in developing universal strategies to understand how trauma can play out in the classroom.
"We're learning more and more about trauma and it's important on our students, their brains and their development," Woods said. "Depending on their age, their developmental level, their trauma history, personal exposure to the event and external sources of support ... Decides how that is going to turn out."
Board Chair Fiona Gilbert said supporting mental health has been a priority for the board, both in advocacy and in the budget.
The age-old idiom "It takes a village to raise and support a child," remains true, she said, and the board is grateful for the work of the Mobile Team.
"It's near and dear to lots of our hearts," Gilbert said.
