The Mental Health Minute is a result of one of Frenship’s strategic plan goals. Elementary schools and secondary schools have their own mental health programs through counseling offices. The Mental Health Minute will help unite the district under one common message.
District staff who worked on this strategic plan examined data, researched various mental health programs, and collected feedback from school and community stakeholders to find what would work best for the students in our district.
Starting in September, there will be a monthly theme and challenge. The monthly themes originated from the Hope Squad program at Frenship’s secondary campuses. Hope Squad is a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program that promotes kindness and hope to help reduce the stigma around mental health.
“The monthly themes that Hope Squad uses corresponded with activities that were already occurring at individual campuses, so we looked for a way to promote these themes districtwide,” said Craig Thomson, Director of Counseling. “The challenges that will be used were developed by school counselors across the district.”
Every Wednesday, a Mental Health Minute announcement will be read at each campus that supports and promotes the monthly theme. The announcement will define the theme and have an inspirational quote connected to it.
“Our amazing district communications team also made slides of each quote that will be displayed on the TVs across the district during that week for students to see,” said Thomson. “Also, on the third week of every month we will have a challenge that is connected to the monthly theme. The challenges help the students focus on how they see the theme in their lives and how they can help promote the theme positively to others around them.”
An additional goal of this specific initiative is to help reinforce the positive behaviors that students exhibit daily.
“The primary goal of any mental health initiative is to break down the stigma of speaking about mental health,” said Thomson. “If any student is struggling with their mental health, Frenship’s Counseling Department has multiple resources and community partnerships that can help students and their families.”
Thomson believes that the monthly themes will be both beneficial and encouraging to students and staff.
“These themes and challenges are meant to help students focus on the good around them and in their own lives. Every student’s story is different but equally important, so it is vital for students to see that there are multiple ways to positively support the people and places in their everyday lives,” said Thomson.
There will also be a monthly family challenge associated with each theme. These challenges will help students take what they learned at school and see how it can be applied in their community.
The themes for the first semester are: September- Hope, October- Connection, November- Gratitude, and December- Generosity.