Northern Lights Public Schools is committed to creating an environment of knowledgeable and supported staff members as they strive to improve the mental health and wellness of all students. This priority was established by the Board after extensive consultations with students, parents and staff.
Our Definition
Mental Health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can learn/work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her school/community. ~ Based on the definition from The World Health Organization ~
Our Evidence of Improvement
In March 2022, Northern Lights students completed a survey that will be administered annually moving forward. The target for May 2022 was to establish baseline data as this was our first year administering the survey. The survey was categorized into four areas including: student potential, normal stress of everyday life, contribution, and the ability to learn/work. This survey has helped identify where students need support, what factors are impacting their mental health, and what aspects of mental health should be focused on.
Additionally, parents were engaged through both a survey and an online forum to provide additional insight relative to student mental health, what resources they may need to support their children, and what challenges they may have experienced in accessing services. Over 700 individuals visited the Mental Health engagement and 437 took part in the survey, representing over 700 students. In addition, 148 parents and guardians indicated they were interested in participating in focus groups that would further the conversation about mental health.
Our Results
NLPS Student Mental Health & Wellness Survey Kindergarten to Grade 2
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Survey Categories
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2022 March Results
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Student Potential: students feel encouraged to do their best
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96.8% of students agreed
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Normal Stress of Everyday Life: students feel safe at school
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89.9% of students agreed
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Ability to Contribute to Daily Activities: students feel safe talking to a grownup
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88.1% of students agreed
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Ability to Learn/Work: students feel loved and enjoy their school community
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93.6% of students agreed
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NLPS Student Mental Health & Wellness Survey Grade 3 to 12
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Survey Categories
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2022 March Results
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Student Potential: students have the ability to understand and manage their feelings and are hopeful about the future
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77.7% agreed or strongly agreed
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Normal Stress of Everyday Life: students need assistance to cope with and manage their fears and anxieties
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68.0% rarely required assistance
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Ability to Contribute to Daily Activities: students can connect with a peer or adult to assist with managing problems
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75.0% agreed or strongly agreed
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Ability to Learn/Work: students feel they belong, are engaged, and can work to the best of their ability
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70.3% agreed or strongly agreed
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Safe & Caring Schools Assurance Measures – Student Responses
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Grade Groups
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May 2020 Results
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May 2021 Results
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May 2022 Results
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Students Grade 4 to 12
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80.2%
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78.6%
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74.8%
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Highlights
Menu of Supports
Northern Lights Public Schools is fortunate to receive a grant through the Alberta Health Services Mental Health Capacity Building project. Our project is called Successful Families. Successful Kids and through the grant we are able to hire a project coordinator and wellness coaches that work in each region of the division.
Our Wellness Coaches have developed a series of presentations for staff, students and parents. They can facilitate these sessions in classrooms and have also worked with teachers to incorporate the information into lessons that align with the curriculum or other classroom activities. Prior to the pandemic, in-person sessions were offered to parents and online sessions continue to be available. Parent sessions cover topics such as vaping, digital addiction, anxiety versus stress, and hope.
Our Wellness Coaches also work with other community groups to offer sessions to the whole community. For example, they work with Lac La Biche County FCSS to organize an It Starts with Hope parent group that offers monthly sessions for parents on many topics related to mental health, parent-child relationships, and child development.
Go-To Educator
NLPS used a division professional development day for staff on November 26, 2021 to focus on Mental Health Literacy. All staff completed Go To Educator training to help NLPS establish a common understanding and language for discussing mental health.
Go To Educator provides a suite of learning opportunities that includes training for teachers, curriculum they can use in classrooms from K-12, as well as programs specifically for Grade 12 students to prepare them for life after graduation. There are also parent sessions that have been developed.
The training focuses on understanding how to foster and maintain good mental health, understanding mental disorders and their treatments, decreasing stigma, and understanding how to seek help and use referral pathways to health care services.
One of the goals of NLPS was to provide all staff with the knowledge to discuss mental health from the same understanding and using the same language. For example, understanding the difference between negative and positive stress.
Mental Health Literacy builds on other mental health focused professional development that has been offered to all staff in the division since the division established student mental health as a priority including The Brain Architecture Game and The Poverty Simulation.
Student Advocacy Counselors
NLPS works to support counselors as they work with all students. Northern Lights commits a significant portion of the funding it receives for student support services towards ensuring that a Student Advocacy Counsellor is assigned to each school and students have access to the supports those counselors provide.
Over the last two years, NLPS has focused on building capacity with our Student Advocacy Counselors and ensuring similar services are being offered at each location. This has included professional development for our counselors, selecting a virtual platform for counselors to connect with students when in-person visits are not possible, introducing software that allows us to better track referrals, and increasing opportunities for division supports to be provided to students who need them.
We have also formed a partnership with the organization CASA: Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health to provide support to our counselors with specific, unique cases. This has allowed us to access expertise that we do not have in our division to help our students.
Agency Collaboration
NLPS has been connecting with our community partners, including other local school divisions, so everyone is aware of what services and resources are available locally. This has led to the creation of partnerships to deliver programming and discussions on how to streamline the provision of services for our students and their families.
We have also been working with Alberta Health Services (AHS) to identify student needs that are beyond the scope of our Student Advocacy Counselors and how to connect those students to supports available through AHS Mental Health and Addictions. As part of this work, NLPS has created a parent information sheet that our counselors can fill out to support parents as they take a referral to Alberta Mental Health or other partner agencies (Psychologist, Therapist, etc.).
Community Helpers Program
Community Helpers is a peer helping program designed for youth and young adults, between the ages of 12 to 30. The program provides training to youth who are identified as natural helpers so that they can help their peers and connect them to supports in their school and community that can assist them further.
Thanks to a grant from AHS, NLPS was able to hire a part-time coordinator to offer this program to all of our high schools and junior high schools. Several schools took part in the training in 2021-2022.