East Lake Middle School kicked off with a mental health day on April 11 to teach kids about mental health and end the stigma attached to it.
The day included activities such as knitting, presentations from Community Therapy Dogs Society, music and how it relates to mental health, stories from people who have struggled with mental health, and much more.
The point of the day was to teach kids in grades 8 and grade 9 about mental health, let them know they are not alone and help to end the stigma around mental health.
“We’ve been able to get a lot of support just from the people that have already connected to our school,” said Shannon Edeburn, the Child Development Advisor at East Lake School.
Some of the kids thought it was really cool that they were supporting mental health and that they were becoming aware of what’s going on in the world today.
One of the programs held at the school was the Community Therapy Dogs, formerly known as the Chestermere Therapy Dogs, session, where they talked about what therapy and service dogs do for people, the difference between the two types of dogs, how they help, and the different programs they offer.
It puts them, psychologically, in a positive state of mind,” said Nina Bruchet, one of the people who came to talk to the kids with Community Therapy Dogs.
Community Therapy Dogs offers the Listening Tails, Visiting Tails, and Caring Tails programs for adults and kids.
“Listening Tails helps the kids feel at ease and allows people to read in a non-judgemental environment,” said Bruchet.
One of the other programs they offered was a music for mental health program run by the Math and Language Arts teacher Scott Mackay.
“Studies have shown dopamine releases when listening to music,” said Scott Mackay.
For the program, he taught how music helps with mental health and at the end he allowed the students to create their own music with garage band.
Mackay said he thought music could help people focus, relax, and even connect with people.
“For me personally creating music just allows me to kind of think through things and understand myself better, so I think it can help with self-discovery,” said Mackay.
The school also got a visit from the Headstrong program, a program meant to make sure Canadians are getting the help they and need and to challenge the stigma around mental illness.
The program talked of what to do if you or someone is suffering from mental illness, what the stigma around mental illness is, shared resources to help people, as well as shared personal stories of struggling with mental illness.
“What do you do if you think the worst is going to happen? Ask questions, tell an adult, keep caring, know you kept them safe, and share resources,” said Fiona Hayes.
To end the day grades six to nine all gathered in the gym for one final assembly with Movement With a Message.
Movement With a Message had Connie Jakab and Steve Osmond talking about how people can affect another’s life and how to better their own.
This involved a lot of dancing and participation from all of the kids and even some teachers
“Movement has been linked to healthy brain connection, circuitry, good self-awareness, and more self-awareness the more other awareness I can have,” said Jakab.
She said that joy is a big part of solving mental health and instead of just talking about the serious it’s good to have some fun.
Osmond said that he thought the kids were also earning to encourage each other.
