Healthy School News
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Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?
Be sure to watch this powerful video. "Why I Refuse to Let Technology Control Me." "You need not drastically minimize your time on social media and commit to spending time completely unplugged. The message is simple, be balanced, be mindful, be present, be here."...
Schools as a Setting for Promoting Positive Mental Health
“Participation in school activities, engagement in the school process, and a sense of belonging are crucial elements in keeping young people on a positive life path.” (Bower, Carroll and Ashman, 2012, pg.10) This quote is included in Schools as a Setting for Promoting...
A Call to Action
“Leadership demands vision to see the path before us, the courage to take it and the strength to follow it.” – Dr. Jeff Turnbull, Past President, Canadian Medical Assn. Not just hope, not just words, but purposeful action. Action Stations Youth need to be provided...
What are the Answers?
If “it takes a village to raise a child” then what does it mean to be a village? What is the role of connection technologies in our educational community and family settings? How do we help change the context of our children’s lives? One size does not fit all. Take...
A School’s Guide to Success: The Seven Cs
Part I: Community Assessment Concentrating on Senior-Level Support Creating a Cohesive Team Collecting Data to Drive Health Efforts Carefully Crafting an Operating Plan Choosing Appropriate Interventions Creating Supportive Environments Consistently Evaluating...
Homework We Should Set
We should assign: One hour extra sleep 20 minutes outside cardio Small screens off after dinner Hang with friends f2f Join a team/group Read a book Write a letter/journal with a pen/pencil Tell a yarn and have an argument Contribute and make a difference Stuart Taylor...
FOUNDRY: A focus on wellness
In 2007 a small team of psychiatrists at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver decided to take a completely different approach to helping young people aged 12-24. Their focus is on wellness, empowering young people to live a balanced and fulfilling life. FOUNDRY offers...
Teens and Sexting
With sexting on the rise parents and educators are grappling with how best to protect teens: preach abstinence or teach them how to be safe? Most teenagers, at increasingly younger ages, are going to deal with some kind of sexting-related experience. In February 2018,...
Self-Control: Predictor of Future Success
The Dunedin, New Zealand Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is regarded as one of the most intense and consequential investigations into human development ever undertaken. The team of researchers began collecting data in the early 1970s on more than 1,000...
NMK – Not My Kid
Parents can be in denial about the secret digital lives many teens are leading and the array of consequences that can result. Examples: Meeting strangers, some of them adults, on a variety of apps Taking risqué photos in disguised vault apps, then trading the photos...
Decade of Digital Dependence (DDD)
While still debated, the potential for Internet or digital devices to have addictive qualities is an emerging concern. The intrusion of electronic devices (laptop, tablet, cell phone) allows students to divide attention between the classroom and other unrelated...
Eighth Grade Movie
Written and directed by Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade shows Kayla navigating her last days of Grade 8. The director captures early-adolescent awkwardness, pain and insecurities with empathy and a comic touch. Kayla is a painfully introverted middle-schooler who gives perky...
Taking Care of Your Mental Health
The Canadian Mental Health Association's Health Meter describes how understanding the characteristics that make up good mental health will help you determine how mentally fit you are. Try their other mental health activities: Work-Life Balance Quiz What’s Your Stress...
Helpful Wellness Modules
The Here to Help website contains very useful wellness modules. Here to Help is a project of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. Ups and downs are a normal part of life. We all feel a bit stressed out or struggle to cope with a problem from...
The Trap of Paradigm Paralysis
Paradigm paralysis can be defined as the inability or refusal to move beyond current models of thinking. I learned recently from my network that a middle school principal had decided not to continue with the transition program. Why would this happen when student...
We Matter
We Matter I Matter. You Matter. We Matter. Hope. Culture. Strength. We Matter is an Indigenous-led and nationally registered non-profit organization that is committed to Indigenous youth empowerment, hope and life promotion. The key project is the We Matter Campaign –...
Loneliness epidemic is harming the workplace
A new article in the Harvard Business Review says that despite our increasing connectedness, society is seeing rising levels of loneliness. This epidemic is not only harming people’s health, it’s also making workers less productive and engaged at work. To improve the...
Letting Go
If you blame other people for how you feel and think, you are out of control and your moods and feelings are dependent upon something or someone other than you. - www.drmartincollis.com The poet Francis described looking at some aspen trees as they surrendered their...
The 8 Health Habits Experts Say You Need in Your 20s
In the article The 8 Health Habits Experts Say You Need in Your 20s, experts in nutrition, obesity, cardiology and other health disciplines give their top health tips to young people starting to develop their eating and exercise routines. Staying healthy in your 20s...
The Truth About Teens and Alcohol
In The truth about teens and alcohol: Parents, researchers and students weigh in on drinking, Erin Anderssen talks to parents, researchers and high-school students across Canada about alcohol consumption. Peer pressure is different than it used to be, she finds, and...
How we’ve become dependent on our digital devices
The Great Disconnect Can we ever kick our smartphone addiction? was a discussion in January and February by phone and email. (Globe and Mail, February 17, 2018) The participants were: Norman Doidge, MD, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author. He is on the Research...
Becoming the Kind Father: A Son’s Journey
In his book Becoming the Kind Father: A Son’s Journey author Calvin Sandborn learns that difficulties need not lead him only to anger, isolation and contempt but can be lessons in opening the heart and connecting with others. “Like most men I was ashamed of speaking...
Children’s Mental Health: How to Instill GRIT in your kids
A 2012 Brigham Young University study looked at 325 families over a period of 4 years. The study found that fathers who practice “authoritative parenting” by granting kids autonomy, emphasizing accountability and explaining the reasons behind rules and children...
Dads: Get Engaged in Addressing Your Overall Health
Fathers Mental Health – This new website has been designed by two psychiatrists to help dads tackle mental health woes. The website acts as an information tool about services, products and research from around the world. The website provides an understanding and...
Less Mum and Dad
Maybe we’re not as good at parenting as we think. A new British study suggests that adults are lousy judges of their children’s health – a tiny fraction recognized clinical obesity in their youngsters, while fully 31 per cent underestimated their kids’ weight....
Time to Talk About Depression
The World Health Organization has identified depression as the leading cause of ill-health and disability world-wide. Latest figures from the organization estimated more than 300 million people were now living with depression – an 18% increase between 2005 and 2015....
Questions to ask to help get the right school fit
There are lots of choices but school selection can be tricky. Here’s a checklist you might want to think about. What personality does your child have? Consider strengths, weaknesses, needs, and interests. What environment would suit your teen? What are your family...
Parents, you are more powerful than you think
Parents, you are more powerful than you think. You can limit exposure to violent media, practice non-violent dispute resolution, communicate with your children and stay involved in their lives. Involving you in planning and implementation serves to reinforce the...
Value school health and follow this formula for success
Can a work/life balance be achieved?
This is the question. We hope to achieve a work/life balance but this can be difficult at times, or even impossible. A particular project or a family situation, for example, can take a colossal investment of time. An intense focus impacts on our life’s balance. All...