In early December 2023, FISA attended an event hosted by Vancouver Coastal Health which brought public health professionals and educators together to review over 100 mental health and substance use programs and resources. Independent school educators may find many of the following short list of resources helpful.
EASE – Everyday Anxiety Strategies for Educators K-7 and 8-12
EASE helps educators teach students strategies to address the thoughts, feelings and behaviours associated with anxiety. A free online course is available from Healthy Minds BC.
Website: https://healthymindsbc.gov.bc.ca/
Here4Peers
Here4Peers involves training students in grades 10-12 to be facilitators of an interactive mental health workshop for grade 7 students. The program is run by the Canadian Mental Health Association Vancouver-Fraser.
Website: https://vancouver-fraser.cmha.bc.ca/programs/here4peers/
iMinds
iMinds is a collection of lesson plans related to substance use and gambling created by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at UVIC. The lessons can be searched by Grade (from K-12) or by subject and align with the BC curriculum.
Website: https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/cisur/publications/helping-schools/index.php
Mental Health Literacy
The Mental Health Literacy website has a variety of resources available to help educators understand mental disorders and their treatments, decrease stigma, and how to assist in seeking help effectively.
Website: https://mentalhealthliteracy.org/educators/
A free self-paced online Learn Mental Health Literacy course is available from UBC https://courses.cpe.ubc.ca/browse/ubcv/faculty-of-education/mhl/courses/learn-mental-health-literacy.
REACH Lab
The Halpern-Felsher Reach Lab at Stanford University Medicine have developed a number of free awareness and prevention kits for topics such as youth tobacco, vaping, or cannabis use.
Website: https://med.stanford.edu/halpern-felsher-reach-lab/preventions-interventions.html
Schoolwide Well-Being Toolkit
As part of our Well-Being BC project, FISA worked with Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl to develop an easy-to-use free toolkit for assessing schoolwide Well-Being. The toolkit looks at four main areas” Teaching & Learning Practices and SEL Instruction; Family & Community Partnerships; School Policies, Procedures, and Practices; and Supportive Environments – Social & Physical.
Website: https://www.wellbeingbc.ca/school-toolkit