As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, a Canadian school board packed an auditorium with educators, parents, students and staff looking for some insight into identifying and dealing with children’s stress. Stressed Kids: The Good, The Bad And How To Avoid The Ugly was a night put on by the Peel District School Board’s social work services department, organised by parents and staff who were keen to increase awareness for student stress, as well as ways to improve child emotional wellness.
With the Associated Youth Services of Peel, staff from the board’s social work department explained what stress is, the signs of stress, the impact, tools for dealing with stress and where parents and students can find help. Jim Van Buskirk, the board’s chief social worker, noted that this is the fifth annual event organised by the social work department and held at the board’s Mississauga headquarters, where past discussions have centred on mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and suicide.
This years event opened with a sketch performed by students from Mississauga’s Cawthra Park, in which they acted the parts of a family experiencing mental pressures. The play demonstrated ways stress can manifest itself in adults and children, the impact it has on individuals and their relationships, and suggestions for coping. Associate Education Director Scott Moreash then told a crowd of more than 250, ‘We are here because we want to help our children.’
Gordon Floyd, Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO) president and CEO, explained to the audience the three goals his organisation had when they started Children’s Mental Health Week in Ontario about seven years ago. The first goal was to raise awareness of how common it is for mental health issues to affect a family’s wellbeing. He noted, ‘Pretty much every family is affected in one way or another.’ Floyd’s second goal was to let parents and students know that support services are available in every community, and his third was to ensure everyone is aware that treatment works. He commented, ‘One reason so many people are afraid is the misunderstanding that mental illness is perhaps forever.’
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