York Region students fight mental illness stigma

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 19, 2015
By Lisa Queen

So much for carefree school days.

While many adults may think high school students have few cares beyond the mundane concerns of teenagers, often nothing could be further from the truth, according to students who attended a conference on mental health and addictions at the York Catholic District School Board education centre in Aurora Nov. 12.

“I think a lot of these teenagers are under-estimated or looked over for not having problems and I think that’s untrue because we go through a lot in high school,” Ida Marchese, a Grade 10 student at Holy Cross Catholic Academy in Woodbridge, said.

“High school is a big change from elementary school and we’re given a lot of responsibilities, like writing tests, getting good marks, getting accepted into schools, universities, etc., so of course we would suffer from mental health issues. But there’s always a way to go through it and work through your problems.”

The ninth annual TAMI (Talking About Addictions and Mental Illness) Stomping Out Stigma summit was a chance for students to find ways to address negative perceptions around mental health issues, Marchese said.

“We talk about mental health and what is stigma and how we can bring awareness to our schools about mental health and how we can help our peers with mental health,” she said.

“It’s a good thing because a lot of people struggle with mental health and a lot of these people don’t want to admit it to themselves or to others. By showing other students that it’s OK to not be OK, it allows them to open up and to get the help they need.”

Newmarket High School Grade 12 students Rose Kennedy and Jessie Zrnec agreed.

“So many people are affected by mental illness, so it’s important to talk about it because it’s everywhere. I know people, my friends, who have depression and anxiety problems so it’s really important to help them,” Kennedy said.

The summit was an opportunity for students to share their ideas and success stories, Zrnec said.

“I found it was a really good way to meet other students who are really passionate about it so we can share ideas and talk about why it is really important to us,” she said.

Students from four schools - Newmarket High, Father Bressani Catholic High School in Vaughan, Richmond Green High School in Richmond Hill and St. Robert Catholic High School in Thornhill - shared some of the successful initiatives they have implemented to help tackle the stigma surrounding mental illness and addictions.

For example, Newmarket High had a Just Notice campaign to encourage students to recognize those around them struggling with mental illness and addictions and a Twitter contest where students could tweet things they are grateful for.

Father Bressani had students wrote derogatory words on Easter eggs and then broke them and this year is offering de-stress activities such as a bubble wrap burst and a tea room in the chaplaincy office.

Richmond Green offered students buttons with emotional words on them to correspond to how they were feeling and this year plans to post sticky notes with sayings such as “take a break” and “breathe” on lockers during exam time.

St. Robert brought in de-stress puppies and clowns to help reduce students’ anxiety levels.

The conference was a chance for students to get together to brainstorm, said TAMI summit co-chairperson Pat Kearns, who worked as a student support counsellor with the Catholic board before retiring in June.

“It’s all about building awareness around mental health and addiction and to really inspire students to go back to their schools to build awareness and reduce that stigma around addictions and mental illness,” she said. “It’s an excellent thing. I worked in high schools for 27 years at the board and a lot of these students will not come forward because they are afraid they don’t matter, that no one will understand or they want to hide it because people will think they’re crazy, those kinds of things. We want to reduce that stigma, get rid of that stigma, so that they can help support one another.”

In addition to TAMI, the conference was hosted by the Catholic board, the York Region District School Board and YRP.

The TAMI Coalition is made up of school, police, youth, mental health and family resource officials.