Mental Health Education (Nova Scotia)
Photo by prenetic on Flickr
~ Mental health means striking a balance in all aspects of your life: social, physical, spiritual, economic and mental. (CMHA)
Mental health plays a crucial role in our lives. However, one of our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) members realized that a lack of education on mental health issues in her school meant that many youth were living with eating disorders, depression or thoughts of suicide; but none of them were being educated about how to recognize the signs or where to go for help. As a result, she decided to spread awareness about mental health issues in her school (in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) in order to raise awareness amongst youth about this subject. The aim of this education and awareness campaign was to enable youth to recognize the symptoms of mental health issues and to help youth who suffer from mental illness by offering them support and making them aware of resources they can turn to for help.
First, our YAC member started discussions about mental health in her classes at school. Then, she put together a presentation on depression and other mental health issues. She is planning to give this presentation in a youth mentoring program in her school that targets grade nine students, Healthy Relationships for Youth. Our YAC member explains that, “this presentation is to get deeper into the topic and hopefully generate positive and educational discussions!”
