Mental Health Practitioner Update
From 15 to 19 September, we celebrated Mental Health Week at St Albans Secondary College, and what an incredible week it was! Lunchtime activities were held each day focusing on movement, mindfulness, creativity and community. The activities ranged from pot decorating and planting to jewellery making, poster competitions and live band performances, creating a vibrant atmosphere of engagement and fun. We were also lucky to have Orygen youth mental health services digital team come out and share information about their new self-help mental health tools. The participation from students and staff at this this year’s activities was outstanding, as we came together to reduce stigma and raise awareness about the importance of mental health in schools.
A very heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone involved in organising these events, especially our CPR ambassadors, whose dedication, passion, and drive were invaluable. These students played a key role in the planning and execution of every event. We’d also like to extend our gratitude to Brimbank Youth Services, Headspace, Bunnings and Orygen youth services for their generous support of our students.
Congratulations to the winners of the mindfulness poster competition, and a huge thank you to all who submitted their amazing artwork – it was a tough decision, as each piece was unique and inspiring. We will be using the beautiful artwork in wellbeing soon.
It has been exciting providing Teen Mental Health First Aid training over the last two terms with Bron our school nurse to all our year 9 student’s. It has been so inspiring to see our school come together and grow our awareness around mental health. We have an incredibly strong community so together let’s continue raising awareness about the importance of mental health, support one another and find fulfilment in your hard work as we head into the final term of the year. I know our CPR Ambassadors can’t wait to start working on organizing next year’s mental health week activities!
If you would like more information on becoming a Connect Protect Respect Ambassador next year please come and see Dotti or Bron in wellbeing, we will be taking senior CPR Ambassador applications for next year this term, and junior applications will be voted on in term 1 next year. As always if you or someone you know needs support, please see your CPR Ambassador or someone in our wellbeing team.
Ms Dotti Schillinger – Mental Health Practitioner