What is Mental Health Capacity Building Program?
Mental Health Capacity Building program operates with the understanding that wellness is for everyone. MHCB works to promote a culture that supports mental health and healthy relationships in schools. MHCB aims to build resiliency in students and families by promoting positive mental health, coping strategies, and healthy relationships through raising awareness, increasing knowledge, and building skills.
With Students:
- Delivering mental health/healthy relationship lessons activities, and events in collaboration with teachers and student groups
- Facilitating connections to community resources
With Parents:
- Connecting parents with community resources and presentations on topics like conflict, suicide awareness, and social media
- Developing resources for parents that complement the mental health/healthy relationship topics that students are covering in school
With School Staff:
- Working with staff to incorporate mental health links to school curriculum and existing activities/events
- Assisting and mentoring staff with delivering various mental health/healthy relationship lessons
- Working with the school staff to provide mental health supports to students/parents (family events, clubs, resources on school website, etc.)
- Connecting school staff with community resources for presentations, events, professional development, student services, etc.
With Community:
- Outreach to non-project schools when time allows
- Collaborating on community events
- Organizing community presentations
Why Mental Health and Why Schools?
Just like physical health, everyone has mental health. To remain physically healthy we exercise, eat right, and get enough sleep. Being mentally healthy require attention as well, by balancing work and play, developing coping strategies, seeking help and support when needed, understanding our emotions, and feeling good about ourselves. ‘Mental’ simply means ‘mind’. When we talk about mental health we are talking about the health of our brain and focusing on how to build and maintain mental wellness.
A comprehensive and coordinated approach is the best way to promote positive mental health. Current research identifies the important role mental health plays in a student’s ability to succeed socially and in the classroom. Students who experience positive mental health are more resilient, have higher academic achievement, and are able to build healthy peer relationships. All aspects of a student’s environment impacts their mental health, by incorporating mental health and healthy relationship messages into the school environment we create a culture that is supportive, safe, and caring.