Mental Health Week May 5 - 7

May 5 to 11 is Mental Health Week across Canada. Pembina Trails School Division offers a variety of mental health initiatives to promote student and staff wellbeing. These include Thrival Kits, Project 11 and culture and land-based learning initiatives.

Prairie Sunrise School is one of a number of schools in the division that offers the “Sources of Strength” curriculum (learn more at Home - Sources of Strength). School Principal Andrea Loepp says it offers a unique perspective.

“It’s a proactive approach to strengthening protective factors,” says Loepp. “One of the important aspects is that students self-assess and see their own areas of strength and support.” Loepp says those self-assessments allow teachers to see where there may be deficits and they can teach in that area.

Sources of Strength employs eight Strengths, or protective factors, to boost resilience in the lives of young people. The program has shown effectiveness in both preventative upstream and intervention outcomes and is considered the first suicide prevention program to demonstrate effectiveness using Peer Leaders to enhance protective factors associated with reducing suicide across a school population.