Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the webinar.  Here is the LINK to the powerpoint slides.  Also, here are community agencies for family referral:

Victoria Women's Transition House Society
24-hour crisis line: 250-385-6611
In an emergency, call the police at 911

Community Office
#100-3060 Cedar Hill Road
Victoria, BC V8T 3J5

Phone: 250-592-2927
Fax: 250-592-9279
Email: info@vwth.bc.ca

Everyone wants to feel more connected and have a greater sense of well-being. In this talk, Jonah Paquette, clinical psychologist, author, and media contributor provides practical, research-backed strategies to foster in our everyday lives by harnessing the power of awe. Jonah Paquette, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist, author and media contributor specializing in the science of well-being. He’s authored four books; Happily Even After, Awestruck, The Happiness Toolbox and Real Happiness. Jonah’s writing provides practical, research-backed strategies to foster greater well-being and connection in our everyday lives. 

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.  

Do you have children or youth in your clinical practice with challenging behaviours and emotional dysregulation? Check out the new Compass Challenging Behaviours and Emotional Dysregulation Toolkit for guidance with assessment and management, or contact Compassbc.ca for clinical case support. If you would like to speak with an experienced mental health clinician about a child or youth in your clinical practice, call Compass at 1-855-702-7272 or visit compassbc.ca.

How 9-8-8 works:  

9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline follows a network model.  When you call or text 9-8-8, you will reach a responder at one of nearly 40 local, provincial and territorial, and national crisis lines, who co-deliver the service.

9-8-8 Partners are the backbone of the service. They are located across Canada. They provide existing crisis services within their communities, as well as taking 9-8-8 calls and texts. They are here to make sure that you can connect to a responder within your local community. Other 9-8-8 partners include Hope for Wellness who offer specialized support for First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and Kids Help Phone, who specialize in supporting young people reaching out to 9-8-8.

At Power Up Education, we believe “sexual health” includes the social, emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of sexuality and relationships. 

 Curiosity is king, and we know that young people have a strong interest and natural inclination to develop their understanding and seek information about sex and sexual health. We believe that we should choose to feed and foster this curiosity in an intentional way to balance and address what children may experience through their online access and social interactions.  

Today, schools continue to be the main source of sexual health information for children and adolescents. In fact, over 85% of Canadian parents, and 92% of high school youth, agree that sexual health education should be provided in schools - and we totally agree.  

We've also created a video introduction and some lessons excerpts: (link in title)
K-7 introduction 
K-7 excerpts
8-12 introduction
8-12 excerpts

This informative video offers the viewpoint of a youth, clinicians, and parents.  
Speakers: Tor Broughton - Transgender Youth Constance Carrière-Prill - Parent of gender diverse children and Gender Diversity advocate. Dr. Daniel Metzger - Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinologist at BC Children's Hospital. Melanie Oliveira - Registered Psychologist and Co-founder of Chilliwack Trans Care Committee Victoria Keddis - Parent of transgender youth and Manager, Facilitator with FamilySmart

Students in Grades 7-12 in this district participated in the 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey.  This wealth of student voice data informs our work in our schools and our community.  

MindFlip is a self-paced, youth-friendly online program with four core modules. Geared towards youth in late elementary and secondary school, topics include brain science and skills for mental fitness, emotional regulation and awareness of our thoughts and emotions, self-awareness and self-compassion, and mindful tools to deal with stress and life challenges. 

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.

Youth use substances for a variety of reasons. These can include to relieve stress, experiment, be social with peers, or to manage pain. Substance use occurs along a spectrum, and may include both benefits and drawbacks for youth.

Some approaches to substance use education in schools have centered on abstinence-only or “just say no'' approaches, which are shown to be ineffective in both reducing substance use and increasing health knowledge related to substances. This begs the question: what do we know about what works in substance use education?

Studies have found common elements in effective approaches to prevent, delay and reduce substance-related harms. These include: 

Designed for education professionals (teachers, guidance counsellors, coaches, social workers and so on) working with youth from grades 6–12 to gain knowledge, tools and resources on substance use, stigma, cannabis vaping, alcohol and impaired driving. Using this guide with the supporting video modules can help educators start and navigate difficult conversations with youth on these subjects.

Why? The BC Mental Health in Schools Strategy (MHiS) identifies key components and priorities for mental health promotion in schools. The BC Mental Health Literacy Community of Practice (MHL-CoP) focuses on two aspects of the strategy. Capacity Building: providing the school system with the tools and supports to build capacity for mental health in schools.
Mental Health Literacy: knowledge and understanding of how to develop and maintain mental well-being; identify risk factors and signs of mental health problems; access help when needed; and reduce stigma around the topic of mental health and disorders.

The "Anxious Generation" by Jonathan Haidt After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children‘s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.