We are please to share highlights of the Durham Catholic District School Board's 2024-2025 Mental Health Action Plan. These goals are also articulated in the board’s 2023-2026 Mental Health Strategy - Together for Mental Health: Everyone, Everyday, and in the Annual Student Achievement Plan.
Goals:
- Hosting the newly formed board-level student mental health leadership group (B Well) to engage students in mental health promotion at the system-level and provide a platform to honor the voices of all students.
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Collaborating with our community partners on the Durham Talking About Mental Illness Coalition and Durham Youth Drug Awareness Committee to focus the student summits on student leadership and engagement with regards to mental health promotion and substance use awareness.
- Implementing School Mental Health Ontario’s Leading Mentally Healthy Schools guidelines with administrators which will include the sharing of actionable items with school staff.
- Continuing to increase educator uptake of culturally-responsive daily practices to enhance social-emotional learning for ALL students through ongoing professional development and offering of spaces for educators to share ideas and collaborate regarding the implementation of social – emotional learning.
- Ensuring all students know where to get help with their mental health through help-seeking campaigns.
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Establishing DCDSB’s Let’s Talk Day with a focus on help-seeking through in class lessons, announcement and distribution of help-seeking materials.
- Supporting the continuing implementation of the Ministry mandated Grade 7 and Grade 8 Mental Health Literacy modules to ensure that all intermediate students have participated in the lessons.
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Making curriculum connections between mental health and various subject areas for educators to increase cross curricular integration of mental health literacy lessons.
- Introducing and promoting wellness activities throughout the year focused on promoting wellness in the areas of well-being for the mind, body and soul.
Goals:
- Providing opportunities for educators and support staff to engage in professional development focused on noticing signs and providing support in the classroom.
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Offering more in-depth professional development to staff in specific roles who may be called upon to support students with their mental health (e.g. Guidance educators, Chaplains).
- Promoting and reinforcing the use of the School Mental Health Ontario website as a central hub for staff, parents/caregivers and community to access resources and information.
Goals:
- Expansion of the multi-tiered system of support through the establishment of brief clinical intervention social work services at both the elementary and secondary level.
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Making specific support available to members of specific communities (e.g.Support through the Coach Advocates for Black Students, well-being support for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, remote virtual services offered when most appropriate for student and family needs).
- Introducing the use of a measurement-based care platform, for social workers to use standardized measurement tools in order to enhance their work with students.
Imbedding professional development for school mental health professionals with a focus on identity, affirming approaches, understanding racial trauma, impacts and clinical interventions.
Goals:
- Providing an annual mandatory refresher for all staff regarding suicide alertness and awareness of DCDSB’s Suicide Prevention and Intervention and Postvention protocols.
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Increasing the number of staff who are trained in suicide prevention and intervention to create suicide safer schools.
- Raising awareness with staff and parents/families/caregivers about local culturally relevant mental health supports and how to access these resources.
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Exploring partnerships with community agencies to support specific populations.
- Supporting the use of both board staff and community partners to provide parents/families/caregivers with presentations and workshops on well-being related topics.
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Increasing communication to parents/families/caregivers about how to access support for their child at school.