Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week is May 4-8, 2020
This year, as we are experiencing social distancing due to the Pandemic, our focus will be on how to maintain social connections and mental health while social distancing. Once again, the York Region District School Board is celebrating Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week with the introduction of a toolkit that contains daily activities that can be done at home for a mental health break. In addition, there will be some suggestions of ways to stay socially connected during this time of physical distancing at the end of the student work day.
All activities coincide which each day of the week. The activities are aligned with some of the health topics found in the Health and Physical Education.
The themes of the 5 mental health break activities are:
Managing Stress
Identifying Emotions
Staying Positive
Nurturing Relationships
Knowing Yourself
The 5 suggestions to stay socially connected are:
Tell the Ones You Love
See Some Wonderful Faces
Think About Who Really Needs You
Talk About the Tough Stuff
Share Good Content
School Mental Health Ontario has created a variety of resources for educators, parents and families, and students regarding supporting student mental health during this time.
Check out some more tips from School Mental Health Ontario on building personal resiliency.
Mental Health COVID-19 Page
COVID-19 has presented unprecedented issues and concerns for our community, our country and the world. As we focus on keeping ourselves healthy and containing the spread of COVID-19, we must also keep ourselves mentally well.
The link below is dedicated to supporting student mental health during this pandemic. Resources for students, parents/guardians as well as community resources are listed. In addition, there are various links to YRDSB mental health supports as well as community supports available during the school closure. Please consider taking some time to familiarize yourself with these supports.
COVID-19 Mental Health Web Page
Continue to check out the YRDSB website for updated information as well as the Twitter account @YRDSB.