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October As we move into the fall season, I am reminded daily of the gratitude I feel for collaborative teams as we support our students, families, and schools. The team hopes that professional learning opportunities and connections will also offer opportunities to energize you in your work. Many of you will be attending the BC School Counsellor's Association Conference on October 20-21 with in-person and hybrid options available. As the busy days and weeks go by, we hope you are prioritizing your wellbeing. Reach out anytime, we are always #bettertogether.
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Our theme for this year is "Compassionate Learning Communities: Supporting Trauma-Informed Practice." Our focus will be ongoing in the areas of healthy relationships, consent, mental health literacy, digital literacy and safety, substance use education, risk assessment, and supporting the diversity within our learning communities.
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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Tuesday, Oct.3
New Counsellor Orientation Location: Tolmie Boardroom
Time: 3:15-4:00
Any counsellor that has been in their position two years or less is welcome to discuss processes, resources, and ask any questions. | Tuesday, Nov. 28
Location: Tolmie Boardroom
Time: 1:00-3:00
Agenda: Jessica Wollen from ShiftEd will be presenting best practice and recommended resources that can be used to support health education, including healthy relationships and consent with the middle years.
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Tuesday, February 27 Location: Tolmie Boardroom
Time: 9:00-11:30
Agenda: TBA | Thursday, May 9 Location: Tolmie Boardroom
Time: 1:00-3:00
Agenda: TBA
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| Elementary Counsellors
The guest presenter was Jessica Wollen of Shift Education. www.Shift-Education.com
Jessica is a teacher and Certified Sexual Health Educator and she joined us via Zoom from the Sunshine Coast. A number of resources were shared that can be used to support health education and specifically abuse prevention education in grades K-3.
Jessica gave an overview of topics to be covered at the various grade levels and she modeled a few key lessons that are in line with BC Ministry requirements. There was also time to consider recent themes being noticed in schools and related challenging questions. Please feel free to explore and share the resources provided, and we hope for more discussion opportunities regarding this important topic in the near future. Jessica is scheduled to present to teachers at the elementary professional development
day.
Resources were sent out via email:
Safe Bodies Strong Kids
My Body My Rules
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Middle and Secondary Counsellors Alison McRae, shared updates with the Project Respect model as well as the impact of the SHIFTing Culture program. VSAC are in the process of updating their curriculum and sought feedback on what counsellors felt would be most engaging for secondary students. Resources on sexual health education and consent have been emailed to counsellors. More to come!
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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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IBI designation info session: Weds, Oct 11 @ 9:15am on Teams New to the district, have questions or just need an IBI refresher? This session will provide a review of MBS and IBI designations, as well as how and why we have Consultation and Collaboration with CYMH (previously known as CYMHCC days). Please
Click here to join the meeting and bring your questions.
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| October - you are free to slow down...
“And in those moments where the sun is setting and the house is quiet and you are weary from the day, may you know that there is grace for you in that space, and no amount of heaviness or loneliness can take that away. And because of that grace, you are free to slow down. You are free to breathe and rest, no matter the things not sorted out. There might be some mystery here and there might be longing, wondering, and waiting. But there will also be boundless peace that goes beyond any understanding, running wild like a river through everything, no matter how heavy these moments feel. So rest easy, when everything is approaching. Tomorrow is surely coming, but in the hours in between, you are free to rest till then.”
― Morgan Harper Nichols
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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
- Stigma
- Coping Strategies
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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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 | Is Naloxone (Narcan) training the answer? Naloxone is a life-saving antidote that temporarily reverses the symptoms of opioid overdose. While Naloxone kits are increasingly considered essential first aid supplies to respond to a possible overdose emergency, increasing safety and decreasing risk includes building competencies and knowledge. Numerous studies have shown that Take Home Naloxone programs in combination with overdose education programs increase long-term knowledge of opioid overdose and reduce overdose mortality. However, naloxone can only reverse the effects of an opioid and doesn’t work on stimulants or other drugs. This underscores why comprehensive substance use education that includes overdose prevention, recognition, and response is so important, as overdoses may involve multiple substances.
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Resources to support you to have conversations with youth about overdose: | Resources to increase your own knowledge about how to recognize and respond to overdose:
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Resources to support youth struggling with substance use or coping with grief and/or loss. |
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| Compassionate Learning Communities: Supporting Trauma-Informed Practice (Open Schools BC The Ministry of Education and Childcare) This 4 Module Workshop Series will be facilitated by the District Team to support our K-12 school teams with a common understanding and trauma informed practice approach within our schools. Each Module will include resources and break out conversations to strengthen connections to our daily work with students. We encourage school teams to register and attend these virtual sessions together. Those that attend all four modules will receive a certificate acknowledging the time and commitment taken to further your understanding of trauma informed practice.
These sessions will be offered virtually to allow easy access to all K-12 staff. Please read below for details and registration information will be sent out to schools very soon.
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The Modules
1. Understanding (September 28 3:15-5:00)
This workshop focuses on understanding through accessible, foundation information on the potential impact of early adverse events including interpersonal neurobiology. The links to affect regulation, learning and social engagement will also be featured in order for educators to intervene and support children effectively. The need for flexibility in accommodating students in compassionate learning environments through understanding of students‘ specific environments and contexts will be emphasized. Local knowledge is incorporated in the broader understanding of the effects of adversity on child development and possible interventions.
2. Relationship (October 12 3:15-5:00)
This workshop presentation focuses on the importance of relationship in motivating, developing and sustaining students‘ engagement in learning, no matter what the adversity is or has been. Relationship is a foundational element to the Framework. In order to form and then maintain supportive relationships and help co-regulate students from adversity who may be struggling with regulation, educator and staff wellness becomes an essential component to the framework. Within this Framework, ideas for increasing well-being for students and educators in sustaining practice are included as components to trauma-informed practice.
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3. Connection (October 26 3:15-5:00)
The need for connection is another element of the Framework, with schools and educators supported in finding ways to engage with families in meaningful ways through knowledge and resource sharing. This workshop presentation highlights that local resources found through community connection are required to broaden the positive experiences of students who have experienced adverse events. Educators‘ facilitation of community-based mentorships often brings positive, life-altering implications for students. Cultural connection through family and community involvement with schools is of critical importance in working with a trauma-informed lens, emphasizing identity and the power of healing found in various worldviews. (Note that when talking about family, children and youth in care may refer to “family privilege”
perpetuated by those who don‘t share or understand their precarious or absent family experience.) The connection between educators and districts through interactive trauma-informed resource sharing increases understanding and capacity in supporting students who have experienced adverse events.
4. Capacity (November 30 3:15-5:00)
This presentation on increasing capacity envisions a strength-based approach. Behaviours are reframed into understanding coping, providing educators with the opportunity to help students develop alternative coping to increase safety so students can learn. The element of capacity guides the compilation of resources intended to help educators better support students who experience adverse events, and in supporting these students, educators may better support all students.
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| Insights for Educators: Supporting Mental Wellness with Bruce D. Perry
The Insights for Educators series helps support mental wellness and classroom success in schools. This is an informative and helpful video series that may be very helpful to share with colleagues at the beginning of staff meetings or during professional development days.
Learn about the brain science behind the power of human connection, interaction, world views and proximity in a way that can be put to use in the learning environment.
Principal of the Neurosequential Network, Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD shares insights for educators that help support mental wellness and classroom strategies.ThinkTVPBS.
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| Insights for Educators: Supporting Mental Wellness with Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD -The Series
Episode 1 Building A Connected Classroom - Learn about the brain science behind the power of human connection, interaction, world views and proximity in a way that can be put to use in the learning environment.
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| Episode 2 Creating a Safe Environment For every classroom, a positive and productive learning experience is rooted in safety. In this episode, Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD reviews the brain science and strategies that educators should know in order to create a classroom of regulated students and adults.
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| Episode 3 Creating an Inclusive Classroom In this episode, Dr. Perry provides insight into the brain science and history behind implicit bias. Learn why this normal human trait is a double-edged sword in educational settings, and how teachers can reduce its negative impacts on a day-to-day basis.
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| Episode 4 Reframing Classroom Discipline Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD discusses why punitive, exclusionary and contingency-based disciplinary models in schools may be having the exact opposite effect they are intended to on students. He reframes discipline in the context of the neurobiology of distress and reward, proposing alternative tactics for educators and administrators.
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| Episode 5 Taking Care of Educators Bottom line: supporting educators improves student outcomes. While many schools have formulated individual self-care plans for teachers, many of these models do not go far enough to address organizational care needs. In this episode, Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD looks at the key elements of organizational care within classrooms and school districts.
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Two Day Virtual Training on CPS with Dr. Ross Greene - November 17 & 18
On the first day of this live webinar, Dr. Greene provides a general overview of the CPS model, including key themes, use of the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems, and Plan B. On the second day he dives more deeply into the technicalities and nuances of various facets of the model, with extensive use of video examples and ample time for questions and discussion. You can join in on one or both days. If you can't join in live for all or part of the webinar, your registration gives you access to the
recording.
Register here! And if you don't want to wait until November, Dr. Greene's most recent 2-day training is available in
pay-per-view here.
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 | Book recommendations: The Emotional Lives of Teenagers - Dr. Lisa D'Amour
Trauma through a Child's Eyes - Dr. Peter Levine
The Family Experience of Divorce
For Parents - Mom's House Dad's House
Co-Parenting through Divorce
Good Parenting through your Divorce
For Kids - Dinosaurs Divorce
The Boys and Girls Book about Divorce
Parents are Forever
It's not your Fault, Koko Bear
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Second Step All K-8 staff have access to the Second Step® social-emotional learning (SEL) digital program that empower our students to build skills for success. This research-based program provides SEL throughout students’ developmental stages, and in both classroom and out-of-school time settings.
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EASE Anxiety
EASE is an online course for educators and a collection of evidence-informed, curriculum-aligned classroom resources for teaching K–12 students effective everyday anxiety management skills. EASE includes strategies for students to help them cope with everyday anxiety while contributing to the mental health literacy of educators.
EASE is available at no cost to B.C. educators and the classroom resources are accessible through the completion of an online, self-paced professional development course. There are two online courses available: one for grades K–7 and the other for grades 8–12.
The EASE classroom resources and lesson plans are designed to fit into existing school routines and practices—to benefit all students. While they are designed for classroom teachers, they can be adapted for use by school counsellors, administrators and support staff.
Some EASE resources have also been adapted for parents and caregivers for use at home. More information: https://healthymindsbc.gov.bc.ca/ease/
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Mental Health Literacy The purpose of Mental Health Literacy is to improve mental health literacy among students, educators and school staff. Mental health literacy is defined as:
Understanding how to foster and maintain good mental health
Understanding mental disorders and their treatments
Decreasing Stigma
Understanding how to seek help effectively
We have numerous programs, customizable to the needs of educators and students, in addition to an evolving Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide. Our programs and resources are used nationally and internationally with research evidence evaluated success.
You can access more ore informational: mentalhealthliteracy.org.
Free course:
https://pdce.educ.ubc.ca/teach-mental-health-literacy/
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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/Secondary 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 Principal: David Hovis dhovis@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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