Madeleine Mccririck is a TTOC in SD61 who is currently working on her Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology.  If you are interested, please email Madeleine at:  mmccririck@sd61.bc.ca.

This Virtual Calming Room is a place for students, families and staff to find tools and strategies for managing emotions and feelings and building our resilience during this pandemic.  Some of the offerings include:  sounds and music, guided mediations, visual relaxation, yoga, live animal cameras, colouring and creativity, mindfulness, apps, and more.

Several copies of these poster have been distributed to all middle/secondary schools for student learning.

The goal of conflict resolution is not to decide which person is right or wrong; the goal is to reach a solution that everyone can be satisfied with. When conflict is resolved effectively, it leads to many benefits, such as accomplishing goals and strengthening relationships.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of young people being treated for eating disorders.  Some paediatricians note that their case loads have doubled in this area of need and are seeing children as young as 10.  Here are some resources to support students and families that are dealing with this issue.

Island Health Eating Disorder Clinic

Kelty Health - Eating Disorders

Family Smart video featuring a youth, parent, and clinician: 

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Carlton Duff has been contracted to provide consultative support to our school-based counsellors. Dr. Duff is a registered psychologist who specializes in intervention and assessment (psychoeducational and clinical assessment) with youth and adults. As a past Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta and current clinical supervisor at the University of Victoria, Dr. Duff has taught university courses in psychology and provides clinical supervision to students training to be psychologists. He also trains parent support coaches in their work with parents of children with anxiety problems. Additional information on Dr. Duff can be found at https://www.duffpsychological.com/who-we-are

As per the terms of his contract, Dr. Duff will have up to 90 hours of clinical consultative support time to provide guidance to counsellors as they work to support the mental health of the students and families in our schools, with the clinical responsibility remaining as the onus of the counsellor. At this point in time, 4 appointments are available weekly on Wednesdays 11:00 to 1:00. Depending on the demand, additional time may become available in the coming months. This is not intended as a personal counselling support for counsellors but rather an opportunity to receive guidance in discussing specific cases, appropriate counselling interventions, etc. As well if Dr. Duff deems necessary, the general nature of conversations may be shared with the contract administrator ( Pam Halverson).

Appointments with Dr. Duff will be booked through his outlook calendar. To do this, please follow these steps:

1.      Dr. Duff will share his calendar with you and you will be able to see what times are available. Only Dr. Duff will be able to see who has booked an appointment with him, others will only see the booked calendar time as busy.

2.      To book an appointment, you will simply send Dr. Duff a meeting invitation for an time listed as available  in his calendar.

3.      Dr. Duff will then respond with a confirmation and information on how to access the appointment.

Confidentiality:  As per Dr. Duff's recommendation at the meeting, if the counsellor brings the case to the consultation (age, grade, concerns, background) without using the student name, confidentiality is intact and thus does not require a parental signature.  

The district outreach transition support workers, Alyssa Strohschein and Steve Braam, will work with District staff (Indigenous Education Department, Mental Health Team), schools and community partners to identify vulnerable students who are not currently connected to schools consistently and may present as Children and Youth In Care, urban Indigenous and/or as a recent immigrant. The goal is that the District Outreach Transition Support Worker will work collaboratively with District staff and school-based staff to build a bridge to transition the student and family to a school community that is responsive to the needs of the children, youth and family.

The District Outreach Transition Support Worker will meet with youth and their supporters in the community, identify barriers to successful connection to schools, and create wrap- around support plans with the goal of reconnecting to school programming. Once reconnection has been established the District Outreach Transition Support Worker will stay connected to the school team to ensure a successful transition back to school and to continue to ensure that the family and student continue to have access to the community supports needed.