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 in grades 4-8.  

 Please feel free to explore and share the resources provided with teacher colleagues.  We hope for ongoing discussion opportunities regarding this important topic.  

Systems work:

• Jessica has been working with secondary PE teachers around the curriculum and resources
• Two presentations with counsellors to highlight curriculum and resources
• Jessica is scheduled to present to teachers at the elementary professional development day.

This series of informational videos and resources aim to reduce stigma and build the capacity of parents, educators and care providers to identify and respond to youth experiencing suicidal and self-harm behaviours. They were created by an expert child and youth psychiatrist, a team of fellow psychiatrists, and young adults and parents with lived experience. 

The purpose of these resource videos is to enhance children and youth’s mental health by equipping the various adults in their lives with mental health literacy, strategies and support specific to suicidality and self-harm.

LINK to the resource site.

The Elementary Mental Health Literacy Resource (EMHLR) is the first of its kind, classroom-ready resource designed for classroom teachers and related stakeholders to teach students in Grades 4 to 6 about mental health.

The conceptual framework of the EMHLR is drawn on an evidence-based mental health curriculum resource.  
Note there will be an introductory session on the resource in the afternoon of the elementary professional development day.  

Join us in watching a video with Lu Ripley, Director of Community Learning and Engagement at the BC Crisis Centre and Tammy Music, FamilySmart Parent Peer Support Worker at Surrey Memorial Hospital's Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Stabilization Unit as they discuss how to talk to your kids about safety. Safety concerns can include suicidal thoughts, self harming behaviours, increased reactivity or aggression and any situation where you or your child is concerned about staying safe at home.

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.

The YDI was developed by the Capturing Health and Resilience Trajectories (CHART) Lab—an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Dr. Hasina Samji—as a collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, the Human Early Learning Partnership at the University of British Columbia, and the BC Centre for Disease Control. The YDI collects population-level youth development data that may be broadly used to better understand the developmental trends, health, and well-being of adolescents in British Columbia (BC). The YDI is administered annually in schools across BC. Since piloting in 2020, the CHART Lab has worked to expand capacity to include more school districts; cumulatively, over 26,000 youth in BC have participated in the YDI to date.  LINK to the document.

Print resources designed to help youth learn about the adverse effects of vaping and make educated decisions about vaping are available from the Ministry of Health.  LINK to the A-Z of Vaping webpage.

Take our free 90-minute certificate course for youth, created by youth.

• Be more equipped to support a friend
• Learn the effects of cannabis on your overall wellbeing
• Hear from youth with lived experience
• 4 unique learning modules
• Diverse and balanced perspectives

LINK HERE

This Resource Page offers tools, strategies, and pathways to supports.  Find the LINK here.

This is the evidence-based model Dr. Ross Greene describes in his influential books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost & Found, and Raising Human Beings. The CPS model has transformed thinking and practices in countless families, schools, inpatient psychiatric units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities worldwide and has been associated with dramatic reductions in adult-child conflict concerning behaviors, disciplinary referrals, detentions, suspensions, restraints, and seclusions. The model represents a significant departure from discipline-as-usual: it focuses on solving problems rather than on modifying behavior, emphasizes collaborative rather than unilateral solutions, encourages proactive rather than reactive intervention, de-emphasizes diagnostic categories, and provides practical, research-based tools for assessment and intervention.

In this webinar, Dr. Greene will provide an overview of the CPS model and more advanced coverage of the nuances of assessment and engaging kids in solving the problems that affect their lives.

Kids, Sex & Screens is Dr. Jillian Roberts' primer for parents that know they need to speak with their children about sexualized media, but don't know where to start.

Our kids are being exposed to sexual content at a younger and younger age, whether through the Internet, advertisements, or interactions with their peers. When children are exposed to this sexual information without context, or images of a graphic nature, they can experience lasting psychological effects with deep-seated ramifications.