Student leaders attend Youth Mental Health Summit

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

Six students from Holy Cross Collegiate attended the YouthSMART – Youth Mental Health Summit for the first time at the YouthLink Calgary Police Interpretive Centre on Oct. 20.
Holy Cross Collegiate teachers Sarah Haughey and Carla Bisharat accompanied six Grade 10, 11 and 12 students to the summit to learn more about mental health.
Haughey said they were asked to take two students from each grade in high school and “we picked the students who we thought would be leaders in our school community and would really help bring it back to the school and come up with ideas to help the student population.”
Haughey thought the summit was really informative. “I thought it was really good because there were really open discussions on mental health,” she said. “I think a lot of youth especially feel like they can’t talk about mental health issues because there is a stigma around it, so that was really good and eye-opening for the kids.”
Keynote speaker Sheldon Kennedy and three guest youth speakers who have suffered with mental health and mental health issues spoke to the summit delegates. They shared their stories with the students and that was “really impactful,” said Haughey, who added some of the guest speakers had mostly dealt with anxiety and eating disorders, and most of them had struggled a bit with suicidal thoughts.
Haughey said Kennedy’s speech was excellent as he discussed his personal journey and how this has now lead him to dedicate his life to awareness and advocacy of mental health and wellness.
Kennedy believes that mental illness does not define a person and would like to help break the stigma that surrounds mental health.
“He was also very open about the fact that your mental health impacts profoundly the people around you,” said Haughey.
Haughey said Kennedy would like to encourage youth to be more open regarding mental health issues and would also like to encourage people to be empathetic to those suffering from mental health issues.
The summit talked about how mental health illnesses are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain and are considered an illness just like any other illness such as asthma or epilepsy. Educators maintain that mental wellness should be part of everyday conversation.
During the summit, the Holy Cross Collegiate students attended break-out sessions on healthy relationships and stress management. The students were taught to identify some warning signs of unhealthy relationships, but mostly the teachings were geared towards how to help peers or students who are going through difficult times.
Haughey said the summit talked about what students can do to keep mentally well and the discussion talked a lot about exercise, eating right and talking to people.
The Holy Cross Collegiate students were enlisted with the task of going back to their school and helping to set up concrete things that they can do as a group to help with mental health awareness and help stomp out the stigma involved.
“I think the first year we will focus on concrete strategies they can do during exams and to help students just relax and not get too anxious,” said Haughey.
She added that it is helpful to just be “a little bit more aware of the strategies you can do to keep mentally healthy.”
Haughey said she wants to create an environment at Holy Cross Collegiate where “kids don’t feel like they have to hide it, or they can say if they don’t feel OK and they’re having a hard time.”
Ideas included handing out stress kits to the student population and perhaps having a quiet room where students can go to decompress for a few minutes.
Haughey said they can decide to focus on different things next year, but for now, “we just have to brainstorm concrete things [students] can do to help make our school more safe and caring.”