DCDSB Mental Health Action Plan

Goals: 

Build student mental health engagement and leadership.  

• Through the board-level secondary student mental health leadership group, BWell, students will have a meaningful platform to share their perspectives on well-being, helping to shape responsive and informed plans that address the needs of our students.
• The BWell group will design a plan to engage elementary students at selected schools, creating opportunities to hear their voices and promote mental health and well-being in meaningful and age-appropriate ways.
• Establishing the Durham TAMI Coalition’s and Durham Youth Drug Awareness Committee’s focus on positive mental health and wellness promotion through student leadership and engagement. 

Enhance commitment to creating culturally responsive, mentally healthy schools. 

• Promoting Wellness Wednesdays across the board by developing weekly school announcements and sharing informative resources with parents to support student well-being.

Increase the use of social-emotional programs, practices and resources in schools and classrooms.

• Creating a social emotional learning guide and a professional development opportunity that outlines programs and materials that can be accessed by all educators in order to increase uptake of culturally responsive, daily social emotional learning.

Support student mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour

• Providing Child and Youth Counsellor support within the Headstart program to ensure incoming Grade 9 students are aware of how and where to access mental health support within their school.
• Supporting the continuing implementation of the Ministry mandated intermediate and grade 10 Careers Studies Mental Health Literacy modules to ensure that all intermediate and grade 10 students have participated in the lessons.
• DCDSB’s Let’s Talk Day will serve as a key platform to raise awareness of available mental health supports within schools and to guide students on how to access them effectively.

Goals: 

Equip educators and school support staff to notice and identify students with emerging and/or escalating mental health concerns.

• Enhancing professional learning opportunities for educators and support staff to recognize early signs of mental health concerns and respond effectively within the classroom setting.
• Providing targeted, in-depth professional development for staff in specialized roles, such as Guidance educators Program Support Teachers and Chaplains, who are more likely to support students with complex mental health needs.
• Equipping new teachers with the knowledge and tools to identify and support student mental health needs through the development of a comprehensive resource guide and targeted professional development opportunities.

 Goals: 

Offer targeted support to specific populations. 

• Actively involving student voices in the planning of key events, such as Black Mental Health Day and 2SLGBTQ+ retreats, to ensure these initiatives are responsive, inclusive, and aligned with the diverse needs of our student communities
• Continuing to provide tailored support for students from specific communities, such as through the Coach Advocates for Black Students, well-being initiatives for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, use of  School Mental Health Ontario resources for newcomer students and virtual services offered when most appropriate to meet the unique needs of students and their families.

Ensure school mental health professionals are equipped to respond to students with mild to moderate mental health needs and those who have been disproportionally impacted by COVID-19, social determinants of health, racism and/or oppression.

• Establishing the use of a measurement-based care platform for social workers to use standardized measurement tools in order to meet students’ goals of improved mental health in the school setting.
• Continuing our commitment to evidence informed practice by supporting staff in accessing trainings in evidence-informed brief interventions and identity affirming approaches for school mental health professionals.
• Expanding the use of culturally responsive and inclusive practices for psychological services staff through the introduction of new assessment tools.
• Engaging in planning with community mental health agencies in order to define the multi-tiered system of support and referral pathways.

 Goals: 

Strengthen the safety net supporting suicide prevention and intervention.

• Providing an annual mandatory refresher for all staff regarding suicide alertness and awareness of DCDSB’s Suicide Prevention and Intervention and Postvention protocols.
• Increasing the number of staff who are trained in suicide prevention and intervention to create suicide safer schools:
  • Prepare; Prevent; Respond: Life Promotion, Suicide Prevention Workshop
  • Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training
  • Mental Health First Aid-Youth

Continue to foster collaborative relationships with community partners, including those that offer culturally relevant services. 

• Continuing to raise awareness among parents, families, and caregivers about local, culturally relevant mental health supports and how to access them, through parent presentations and regular information shared with families.

Build strong partnerships with parents/families/caregivers through collaboration and capacity-building. 

• Expanding the number of engagement and educational opportunities by providing parents/families/caregivers presentations and workshops on well-being related topics offered by board staff and community partners
• Increasing information to parents/families/caregivers about how best to notice and respond when their child may be struggling with their mental health and how they may access support at school.