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Celebration and Acknowledgement Congratulations on another year of offering care and support to your school community. Your presence and dedication to the work makes a difference for so many. Hold fast to that whenever you feel overwhelmed by competing demands. Please continue to reach out and collaborate. Connection and collaboration are key to offering our students the very best care. Enjoy the remainder of the school year and look forward to some fun and rest during the summer months.
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Our theme for this year is "Healthy Relationships through a Trauma Sensitive Lens."
Our Counsellor meetings offer an opportunity for connection, professional development, and consult and collaboration around individual students and work. We value this time to connect and have received your feedback about which resources and community agencies you would like to hear more from.
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Thank you to those who were able to attend the collaboration. We are seeking feedback on meeting structures for next year and more. Please click on the button below and complete the survey to help plan for next year.
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MYST Resource At our April Counsellor Collaboration, Mia presented the film "Tied to a Lie" which focuses on the exploitation, grooming, recruitment of youth for online sexual exploitation, gang recruitment, and sex trafficking. It has been recommended that this film is best presented in schools to youth age 15 and over. Although we do have youth within this risk profile in middle school, the content is deemed too sensitive and we can wrap around supports individually as we currently do.
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| Many thanks to Cindy Andrew in sharing a deeper dive into the ABC resource for educators, youth, counsellors, and parents. We encourage you to explore the site that is linked in the title and we continue to highlight updated resources within our monthly newsletter. If you missed these, please go back to prior newsletters from 2022/2023 using the archived newsletters button at the end of the newsletter.
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Supporting Student Health Guides - Ministry of Education and Health Care The provincial curriculum has brought together physical education and health education in order to develop all aspects of well-being and emphasize the connections between physical, intellectual, mental, sexual and social health.
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Elementary Topics
- Consent
- Body Science
- Safe and Unsafe touch
- Internet safety
- Puberty
- Safer sex (STIs)
- Mental health
- Brain Science
- Bullying
- Wellbeing
| Secondary Topics
- Consent
- Internet safety
- Healthy relationships
- Healthy Relationship decision making
- Healthy Sexual Decision making
- Safer Sex
- Body Image
- Str
- Stigma
- Coping Strategies
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 | BC School Counsellors Association Comprehensive School
Counselling Model Updated in 2021. The Executive of the BCSCA recognized the need for an updated resource that would serve to inform school counselling roles and practices within the province, and which could serve as a quick reference guide to many of the resources that are regularly used by school counsellors.
Note: School districts in BC hold the final decision regarding standards and practices of counselling in schools.
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| How You Can Practice
Self-Care Clinicians shared their suggestions on how to incorporate self-care into their busy routines.
1. Identify what activities help you feel your best. Self-care is individual. As Duffy said, “Self-care for one person will mean something completely different for someone else. One person may need more alone time, for example, while another may nurture herself by spending more time out with friends.”
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2. Put it on your calendar — in ink! Take a close look at your calendar and carve out one or two hours for self-care and stick to it, Boivin said. This may take extra prep, but it’s worth it. For Adams, the mornings are the best time to exercise, so at night, she lays out her workout and professional gear and anything else she needs for her day.
Keep an eye out for special events, too. “When I see information about a cultural event that I would enjoy, I make a reservation or purchase tickets so that I have something pleasurable on my calendar,” Adams said.
If you’re crunched for time, Orbuch suggested gradually increasing your self-care each month by a few minutes.
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3. Sneak in self-care where you can. If you don’t have huge chunks of time, you can still fit in little moments of relaxation. As Boivin said, don’t wait to add self-care to your life until your schedule frees up. (You might be waiting a while to forever.) She suggested starting where you are. “Starting is the most important step to take.”
“Even if you take just five minutes to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, it can help your stress level,” Sarkis said. A 10-minute walk makes a big difference to Boivin.
Don’t hesitate to get creative either. Boivin uses her time between client appointments to listen to music and dance. Once a client arrived early and heard the music. Boivin shared her self-care tip and the client loved the idea.
4. Take care of yourself physically. According to Orbuch, this means getting
enough sleep, eating nutritious foods and exercising. “When you physically take care of yourself, you will reap the benefits emotionally, psychologically, health-wise, and in your relationships,” she said.
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5. Know when to say no. “Your health and well-being come first,” said Sarkis, who suggested nixing anything that doesn’t feel fulfilling. If you have a hard time saying no, here are some tips along with advice for building and preserving better boundaries.
6. Check in with yourself regularly. Duffy suggested asking yourself the following critical questions: “Are you working too much? Do you feel tapped out? What do you need to take away, and what would you like to add?”
7. Surround yourself with great people. Make sure that the people in your life are “upbeat, positive and know how to enjoy life,” Orbuch said.
8. Consider the quality of self-care. “Go for quality, especially when the quantity is lacking,” Tuckman said. For instance, rather than getting sucked into channel
surfing for hours, Tuckman only watches the shows he’s recorded. “By minimizing my TV time, I have more time for other better things.”
9. Remember that self-care is non-negotiable. “In order to live a healthy and rewarding life, self-care is a necessity. With that attitude, it becomes very natural and easy to do,” Boivin said.
(Adams, Boivin, Duffy, Orbuch - PsychCentral).
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Summer Day Camp for Newcomers to Canada
GVSD in Partnership with Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS)
Summer Camp is for newcomers to Canada who are Permanent Residents (immigrant/refugees), CUAET (Ukrainian) visa holders and refugee claimants. Children and youth currently enrolled in the Greater Victoria School District in Kindergarten to Grade 11 are eligible to apply.
This opportunity provides engaging arts & crafts, games, sports, and activities each morning followed by outings in the community each afternoon. Summer Day Camp will run from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm each day from SJ Burnside Education Centre, located at 498 Cecelia Road. Transportation to/from SJ Burnside is not provided.
Two camps will be offered in August:
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Camp 1 will run from Monday, August 21st to Friday, August 25th
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Camp 2 will run from Monday, August 28th to Friday, September 1st
- Both Camp 1 and Camp 2 will offer a children‘s program for ages 6-12 and a youth program for ages 13-18.
Summer Day Camp is free of charge. Registration may be based on a lottery system depending on the level of interest and spaces available for each camp.
Schools interested in referring families to Summer Day Camp can have them register
below between Monday, May 29th and Friday, June 16th. Confirmations will be sent out to families the week of June 19th to 23rd.
If you have any questions, please contact Lindsay Budge, VIRCS Program Facilitator
at Lindsay@vircs.bc.ca
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Telus Health
In conversation with community partners, the impact on families not having the ability to access continuity of care for their children including monitoring of medication is very real. If you have parents that are experiencing this challenge, you are able to support them with the knowledge that a) they can choose a doctor on telehealth and b) once they find a 'match' they can continue to schedule ongoing service with the same practitioner.
Telus Health Virtual Care Brochure
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The Hope for Wellness Helpline is available to all Indigenous people across Canada. Experienced and culturally competent counsellors are reachable by telephone and online ‘chat’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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JUNE SNAPSHOT TOPIC: Diversity and Inclusion
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| We encourage you to read the information linked above. On May 31, 2022, Health Canada approved the Province’s request to decriminalize personal possession of illegal substances in B.C.
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Decriminalization came into effect on January 31, 2023 for an initial 3 year period.
Criminal penalties will no longer apply for possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use when abiding by the terms of the exemption.
Trafficking will remain illegal, regardless of the amount possessed.
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| On Demand - Dr. Ross Greene Lives in the Balance
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District Mental Health Team Our work focusses on supporting schools and families with students who present with complex profiles that may include emotional, behavioural, mental health, and substance use concerns. We collaborate with district levelled teams and school teams for the purpose of complex problem solving and integrating supports. This also includes collaboration with community agencies (i.e Discovery, CYMH, Police) to develop consistent interventions to offer increased wrap around support to the students and families that we serve. Professional learning opportunities, snapshots, and newsletters are created to promote ongoing education and resource sharing with colleagues, students, and families. Additional work includes VTRA (Violent Threat Risk Assessment) and CIRT (Critical Incident Response Team) response when these needs arise in our school community.
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District Counselling Team Contact Info:
Middle District Counsellor: Monique Moore mmoore@sd61.bc.ca
Elementary District Counsellor: Maureen von Tigerstrom mvontigerstrom@sd61.bc.ca
Youth & Family District Counsellor: Jen Aston jaston@sd61.bc.ca
Indigenous District Counsellors
Secondary Joanne Mitchell jomitchell@sd61.bc.ca
Middle David Davidson ddavidson@sd61.bc.ca
Elementary
Pam Russ pruss@sd61.bc.ca
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Additional Members of the District Mental Health Team: District Vice Principal: Christina Pelletier cpelletier@sd61.bc.ca
Deputy Superintendent: Harold Caldwell hcaldwell@sd61.bc.ca
Mental Health Resource Coordinator: Marnice Jones mjones@sd61.bc.ca
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