A mental health program developed after six teen suicides stunned the Red Deer area two years ago has been recognized by the province and will be duplicated elsewhere starting in the fall.
Red Deer Public Schools’ Resiliency Program for Grades 6 to 12 will soon be run at Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, Chinook’s Edge School Division, along with school jurisdictions in Medicine Hat and Wetaskiwin.
Premier Jim Prentice said on Wednesday in Red Deer that Alberta’s future is about its children and advancing services for people with mental health challenges and addictions is a priority for his government.
“In an increasingly complex, fast-paced and competitive world, some of the most important supports we can provide to our youth are those that build resiliency and promote good mental health. It’s harder to be a young person today than back when I was at school like this. It’s harder than it was when I was a parent helping to raise my three daughters,” Prentice said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
As part of the 2015-16 provincial budget, Alberta Health will put $48 million towards addiction and mental health programs, including school-based programs, through Creating Connections: Alberta’s Addiction and Mental Health Strategy.
Between $5 million and $6 million will go into expanding the Resiliency Program.
Resiliency is a pilot project between Albert Health Services’ Addiction and Mental Strategic Clinical Network and Red Deer Public Schools. It focuses on prevention, early identification and rapid treatment.
“When we are able to support younger people when they are in their teens rather than when they’re in their 20s and 30s, we believe, in theory, we can save millions and millions of dollars. But what’s more important is (we can) help people with some of the problems they face,” said Health Minister Stephen Mandel.
Mandel said Resiliency includes ways to measure how much it helps students.
“When all the information is in, it should give us enough data to make determinations on how we can expand the program gradually across the province. It will be about four years before we get every school across the province involved.”
Bev Manning, Red Deer Public Schools board chair, said the community, school staff and students worked together in response to Red Deer’s suicides, and Resiliency was one of the outcomes that focuses on prevention.
“With every crisis there is an opportunity, and I think this opportunity arose out of some really awful crisis that this community experienced,” Manning said.
“We want to initiate the conversations about mental health. We want students to be able go home and say, ‘Hey I’m having a problem.’ Or to say to some caring adult, ‘I’m having an issue, I need to talk about it.’”
Central Middle School principal Mark Jones said the supports provided by Resiliency have been very successful in reducing depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts in children and youth.
“In our school alone, the screening has identified a significant number of students who were not on our radar for having mental health issues,” Jones said.
He said the program has increased positive feelings and self-esteem, positive youth interactions in the community, increased high school attendance and completion rates, improved coping skills and resiliency, and decreased use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Resiliency is in its second year and is one of Alberta Health’s Empathy programs. They are mental health programs the province funds in about 190 schools.
With Resiliency, students are screened through a series of mental health and wellness questions. Students identified at severe risk receive immediate intervention. Depending on risk, support is available through counsellors and Resiliency coaches, mental health therapists through the local Primary Care Network, and addiction and mental health therapists with Alberta Health Services.
“What’s really important to me is students are recognizing they are not alone. That others are also dealing with many of the challenges and struggles associated with mental health and wellness,” Jones said.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com