Life long wellness; it’s not just a slogan, it’s a philosophy to embrace for life.
And to instill a life-long philosophy, there’s no better place to start than with the young.
That’s where Right from the Start comes in as an integral part of the Canadian Rockies Public Schools community as a local Mental Health Capacity Building Project.
Funded by Alberta Health Services, Right from the Start has two staffers in Banff Elementary School and in Elizabeth Rummel School in Canmore, while supporting Lawrence Grassi School as a satellite project and now working with Alpenglow, which is housed in Canmore Community High School.
With Mental Health Week taking place May 2-8, Right from the Start has slated many activities in the schools and is challenging schools and staff to ‘practice gratitude.’
“We work in the schools with children and their families,” said Mary Weighell, local project coordinator for Right from the Start. “We’re about intervention and prevention and de-stigmatizing mental health issues.”
The group, which deals with children and families of kindergarten to middle ages, as well as younger children through Parent Link, is community based and work with partners like the Town of Banff and Canmore’s FCSS (Family and Community Support Services) and YWCA, among others.
“We are prevention-based,” said Weighell, “and we try to cultivate a community of mental health and well being. We don’t view mental health issues as an affliction and use a wellness wheel in talking about mental health.”
The wellness wheel includes areas relating to a person’s spiritual needs, as well as the physical, emotional and mental.
For example, said Weighell, when a student knows they were up late at night, didn’t get enough sleep and are physically and emotionally tired, they need to recognize their situation and take steps to alleviate it.
“It’s like being a wheel yourself, if it’s flat or has too low a pressure, you can’t go far. You need to recognize you’re not well in that area.”
By being preventative in nature, Right from the Start staff try to keep mental health top-of-mind with students.
“We’re in a state of mental health every day, moment to moment,” said Weighell. “When kids grasp that, they can start talking about it. I’ve noticed, over the last eight years, that kids are more open about going home and talking about what they’re learning.”
The local Right from the Start project is one of 37 Alberta wide, “with the same mandate of mental health capacity building,” said Weighell. “They’re in cities and in rural areas and each is adjusted to the local school area.
“It’s funny, rural kids will talk about relaxing on bales or riding quads as what they enjoy, while here kids talk about getting out in nature. That’s why each program has a local focus.
“We work with individual kids and families on issues like parenting, divorce, death – before it gets to a point where it’s a problem.”
On the local front, Weighell said common threads among K to 8 students are typical topics like bullying, but also sometimes of an overall anxiety. “Sometimes parents have a high level of anxiety and that can trickle down to children. Or people move here, or leave here, and that can cause levels of anxiety as everything is new or changing as people make transitions from housing to financial.
“What we’re able to do is provide on the ground support while these things are manifesting, rather than when they become a big problem. It’s about prevention and mindfulness and support day-to-day, not just when things are terrible.
“Day to day, we need to be calming, support health initiatives and talk about feelings.”
For more, visit the CRPS website at www.crps.ca and, under Programs, click on Comprehensive School Health for a list of community partnerships and services. Or visit on Facebook.
For mental health week, Right from the Start around the province is promoting the idea that feeling good is about taking care of yourself. It involves simple things like spending time with friends, walking in the sunshine on your coffee break or enjoying a funny video.
Research has shown that self-care is vital to feeling good, which builds and maintains positive mental health.
Self-care is about incorporating behaviours into your day that refresh and replenish you. It is allowing yourself time to do simple things that make you feel more connected and alive. Self care is figuring out what it is that “resets” you and supports shifts in your mood. This allows you to feel good amongst the day to day tasks that can sometimes feel like routine, overwhelming, or too much.
As to means of self-care, Right from the Start is promoting being kind, practicing gratitude, eating healthy foods, being active, appreciating yourself, getting your groove on, and laughing.
