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March Counsellor Newsletter |
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April Here we are in the final three months of the school year as we all are busy with supporting student transitions between grades and schools. Our next counsellor collaboration will be on May 28 and the session topic is described below. Please let Maureen and I know if there are any retirements this year as we would like to acknowledge and celebrate our colleagues. Be well in the work and 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 welcome your feedback about which resources and community agencies you would like to hear more from.
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Thursday, May 28
Location: Tolmie Boardroom Time: 1:00-3:00 Agenda: Webinar on Gender and Sexual Diversity in Youth Peer supervision/consultation
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| CTRI - Family Violence Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the webinar. The slides were sent to all counsellors via email. Also, here are community agencies for family
referral: Victoria Women's Transition House Society24-hour crisis line:
250-385-6611In an emergency, call the police at 911 Community Office #100-3060 Cedar Hill Road Victoria, BC V8T
3J5 Phone:
250-592-2927Fax: 250-592-9279Email: info@vwth.bc.ca
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The Cridge Transition House for Women (LINK in title)The Cridge Transition House is a safe place for women with or without children fleeing violence or abuse in their homes. Safe emergency shelter - the 24/7 crisis line is
(250) 479-3963
- outreach services to support women from their homes and as they move into the next step of their journey
- One-on-one support and advocacy
- support creating goals
- assistance with housing applications, income assistance, Legal Aid, and more
- accessing or contacting community supports and programs
- referrals to community programs, Legal Aid, affordable housing, counselling, and childcare
- Child and youth support worker
- community connections
- personalized resources
- prescheduled childminding
- Safe Space Antiviolence Programing
- house activities and recreational outings
- transportation support.
If you have a parent that is seeking resources but wants to know more about the available help, call our outreach worker at
(250) 479-3963.
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Pacific Family Services - Family Violence Program (LINK in title)The Safer Families – Family Violence Program offers individual and group counselling to persons using abuse or violence in intimate partner relationships. Participants in this program are usually not engaged in the criminal justice system. To increase safety, services are also available for affected partners. We deliver individual and group interventions to maximize safety for women and children. Referrals are received from and may be funded through the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the Domestic Violence Unit or open to the public based on fees for service. There is no fee for group services. Fees may apply to private referrals for individual counselling. Counselling and Social Services
ReceptionPh: 250.478.8357 | TF:
1.866.478.8357Fx:
250.478.3699Em: pacificcentre@pcfsa.org
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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.
More Info
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Mental Health Literacy Know Before You Go
Know Before You Go is a resource that is intended for Grade 12 students, and the educators who support them, as they transition from high school to post-secondary studies and/or employment. This life skills resource helps students anticipate, identify and navigate situations they will encounter when entering the realm of postsecondary education. It contains information on many topics including paying bills, study skills, roommate issues, identity questions and embedded throughout is how to maintain good mental health and seek help as needed.
LINK to Resource
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| Y-Minds Y Mind Teen (13-18) Upcoming program times and dates: In person - Downtown Victoria YMCA-YWCA 851 Broughton St
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Information & Intake Sessions:
Wednesday April 17th and April 24th, 2024
5:45-6:15pm at the Downtown Y location
Individual intake sessions after the info session
Group Program Dates:
Weekly on Wednesdays, May 1st - June 12th, 2024
6:00-7:30pm (In person)
Email Lana at mindfulness@vancouverislandy.ca
* note your interest in an online group. | Online registration for information/intake sessions is available here: YMCA-YWCA of Vancouver Island Online Services (activecommunities.com)
https://vancouverislandy.com/program-services/community-health/mental-wellness/
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| New Suicide Prevention and Self-harm Videos and Resources Available
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.
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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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Resources can be found on the Sexual Health Resource Page on the Healthy, Safe, and Caring Schools website.
Vancouver Coastal Health Consent Curriculum
Elementary Abuse Prevention Resources → Google folder full of great resources
West Coast Leaf "Is That Legal" → excellent document outlining the law/sex/digital use in BC
Trans and Non-Binary Youth Inclusivity in Sexual Health → from Planned Parenthood Toronto, great resource to support teachers
SIECCAN - Sexual Information Education Canada
LINK: The Sex Information & Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN) is a not-for-profit charitable organization established in 1964 that works with health professionals, educators, community organizations, governments, and corporate partners to promote sexual and reproductive health.
Teaching Sexual Health -
LINK: Wide range of lessons and resources for all grade levels.
Amaze.org -
LINK: At AMAZE, we envision a world where a child and young person‘s sex education and sexual development is embraced as natural and healthy. Our mission is to foster a global community where young people are fully supported, affirmed, and engage in open, honest conversations with the adults in their lives about topics such as puberty, pregnancy and reproduction, healthy relationships, and more! For younger children, we have fun AMAZE Jr. videos that you can share and watch with them to answer some of their big questions!
More Sexual Health Resources
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Sexual Health K-7
| Power UP Sexual Health Education Resources 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
excerpts8-12
introduction8-12 excerpts
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LINK to the document
| 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey GVSD61 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.
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Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC - MindFlip Program 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.
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More Info
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Available free of charge, each of the four modules can be taken in full or bite-size portions, facilitated by an adult or taken independently, and the content can be revised at learners‘ convenience. Sessions utilize videos, interactive content, and guided practices. | Youth were integral in the development of the modules from start to finish. Five youths were consulted on information to include in the program and the look and feel of the modules. In the program itself, interviews with youth are included to feature their voices, opinions and experiences. Engaged throughout the entire process, youth were also involved in filming the modules and writing the scripts.
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| Anxiety Canada - Educator Toolkit Bring ACTION ANXIETY DAY into your classroom leading up to June 10th. Let’s create awareness about anxiety and educate kids with tools that work! Our educational toolkit is ideal for educating Grades K-7. Please note that current toolkit is offered in English, and a French toolkit will be available in April.
Access the Toolkit
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Child and Youth Mental Health - High Risk Team The High Risk team is one of the six multi-disciplinary Child and Youth Mental Health Teams in the Greater Victoria area. We accept referrals directly from children, youth and families as well as community partners including school counsellors. We accept referrals Monday-Friday from 9am-4pm by calling our office at
250-952-5073. We are also happy to provide consults to school staff who are unsure if the High Risk team is a fit.
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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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| ABC Substance Use Education 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:
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Enhancing youth competencies through multi-component approaches Research has found that “knowledge-focused” programs (which provide information only) have no effect on rates of student substance use or students‘ intention to use substances. Conversely, multi-component substance use education programs which include both health information alongside social competence curricula (such as teaching problem-solving and decision-making skills) have been found to reduce substance use, intention to use, and improve student knowledge about drugs.
Interactive approaches Youth are more engaged and report better outcomes in programs which include interactive components, such as open discussions, group work, and exercises woven into existing curricula over lecture-based approaches that are statistic-heavy. Further, lectures which include graphic images or other scare tactics are ineffective as these are perceived as inconsistent with youths‘ own experience with substances. |
Teachers as facilitators rather than 'one-and-done' presentations Relying on external presenters to provide substance use education is less effective than programs that are facilitated by classroom teachers. Teachers develop important trusting relationships with the students in their classrooms, and are available to students who have further questions about substance use on an on-going basis.
Account for developmental stage Different approaches work for students at different developmental stages. For instance, universal programs are effective during elementary years, while targeted programs are more effective during middle and late adolescence.
Comprehensive, whole-of-school approaches Interventions which seek to bolster both personal and environmental protective factors (such as self-esteem programs, positive school environments, and positive relationships between students and teachers) have a positive effect in reducing illicit drug consumption.
To learn more and see the list of research cited above, refer to the ABC resource Delivering to Substance Use Education (revised Feb 2024).
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LINK to the Resource
| Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction: Understanding Substance Use - Educator's Guide 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.
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Here are the five video modules in the Understanding Substance Use video series. The series covers the following topics:
Understanding Substance Use Understanding Stigma Understanding Cannabis Vaping Understanding Alcohol Understanding Impaired Driving
Watch each module while using the Educator‘s Guide as a supporting resource. The guide provides in-depth information on key concepts, exercises for self-reflection or group discussions, and resources for further reading.
The video modules and educators guide can be used for independent or small-group learning.
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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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| Book Recommendation: The Anxious Generation - How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness 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.
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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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