To facilitate physical distancing, consultation and collaboration will continue to take place via the phone. The Victoria and Saanich CYMH team leaders are available April 19 and 21. The Aboriginal CYMH team leader is available in the morning on April 19, and the afternoon on April 21. Please see the attachments for further details. Requests for consultation and collaboration phone calls, including the collaborative planning template, need to be submitted by noon on April 8 through the link embedded into document titled Consultation and Collaboration Days.  If you have any questions, please reach out to Dana Marchant at dmarchant@sd61.bc.ca. 
Please click here to register for a consultation/collaboration meeting.

This website offers a variety of self-compassion practices including guided meditations and exercises.  "With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we'd give to a good friend."

The final counsellor meetings of the school year will be:  May 19th 8:30 - 10:00.  Please let us know if you are planning on retiring this year, so we can acknowledge you at our last meeting of the year.  
  

It challenges gender and social stereotypes
 
It increase young people's earning potential Research shows that children start to make assumptions about their suitability for a career as early as age 5. 

When students are exposed to 3 or more volunteer speakers, 7% changed their future plans, while 20-28% of them questioned their career and education choices.  https://www.educationandemployers.org/research/motivated-to-achieve/

AutoTech, TASK, Aviation

Do you know any students who have a keen interest in working with cars, airplanes, or in the trades?

Students who apply this before the end of April for a 2022 Cohort will be interviewed in May for early acceptance and to help with timetabling. 

 Parents/guardians are also asked to participate by attending 2 parent-only education sessions, with a focus on understanding anxiety,  supporting youth to take charge of anxiety and worry in their lives, and personal wellness.  Parent session will be facilitated online via Zoom. Dates TBD
Facilitated by:  Katy Rose, MA, RCC & awesome practicum students

*People of all genders, sexualities, bodies, ancestries, cultures, and abilities are welcome.  Maximum of 10 participants.

* Covid safety policies are in place to manage a safe group outside, physical distancing will be expected, and activities modified to meet these needs. 

During the middle and high school years, many teenagers believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. In a world of social media, peer pressure and feeling misunderstood they may fear the stigma more than the consequences of going without the help they need. Many times you will see the adolescents that are in the most difficult places trying to hide how hard things really are.

The intent of this poster is to highlight the fact that bravery is having the courage to be vulnerable, share our struggles, and to ask for help when we need it. It includes the Vancouver Island Crisis Line and our local resource Where to Call for Help in Our Community. 

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.