Are you ready for mental health month?
As Mental Health Month quickly approaches, we're excited to share some ideas for your school to champion mental health awareness throughout May! Here are suggestions to empower your school community:
Dive into a Week of Mental Wellness: Encourage your school to dedicate a week in May to five mental wellness challenges! Some ideas to incorporate are sharing mindfulness practices, exploring the power of gratitude journaling, fostering a culture of love and acceptance with creative wall art, and encouraging random acts of kindness. Maybe have some fun prizes for students who are able to complete all 5 challenges!
Host a Mental Health Education Fair: Consider organizing a Mental Health Education Fair where students and parents can explore the diverse range of mental health support services available in your community. For Peel schools, EveryMind is a free mental health agency servicing any child or youth in Peel. If you’re looking for some support for your whole parent community, our popular parent workshop “Raising Happy & Healthy Kids: Tips for Talking to Your Children About Mental Health” provides parents with comprehensive mental health education and helps them start these important conversations at home.
Explore the Arts: Encourage students to explore various art forms such as poetry, music and films to help broaden their perspectives on mental health. Have students share how their perception of mental health changes as they explore first hand accounts of challenges that they might not have encountered in their own lives.
We hope that these suggestions inspire you to embrace Mental Health Month and use it as an opportunity to teach your students about the importance of their mental health and wellbeing.