The Ministry of Health & Wellness on Friday continued its #DoYourShare mental wellness campaign, with a Wellness Check-In done with the students and staff of Lawrence Tavern Primary School in St Andrew.
The Wellness Check-In coincided with the school’s observation of awareness-raising activities for the upcoming World Down Syndrome Day. Lawrence Tavern Primary School, which opened its doors in 1921 and now serves 686 students, is the latest beneficiary of the intervention.
The visit featured Director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr. Judith Leiba who engaged students on their mental wellness while sharing with them some tools they can use to help to manage their emotions and how to treat those with special needs.
Those tools include the use of a stress ball as well as, importantly, finding a safe space as well as a safe person with whom to talk or to whom they can appeal for help. The institution also benefited from the donation of a Wellness Bench as a symbol for the promotion, creation and maintenance of safe spaces.
Dr Leiba also charged the students to make use of the Wellness Bench to connect with each other.
“Thank you so much for having us here this morning and I hope this Wellness Bench will provide you with a means to reach out and bond with each other in the moments when things may not be going as well or you don’t feel as happy,” she said.
School principal,Marlene Davis-Fairweather expressed her gratitude for the intervention, which also sees the school now having access to a wellness toolkit that was developed by the Health Ministry.
“I believe that interventions like these are key to the development of our future leaders so we had to grasp this opportunity with both hands. We want to secure not only your educational well-being, but your mental, social, and emotional health and we hope this intervention today was able to push us in that direction,” the vice-principal told students.
The toolkit, meanwhile, was developed in collaboration with Senator Dr. Saphire Longmore, a consultant psychiatrist who has provided support to the national mental health programme. The toolkit is a four-part video series looking at the dimensions of health, notably the mental, the physical, the spiritual, and the social.
It features personalities and professionals such as clinical psychologist, Dr. Kai Morgan; award-winning chef and author, Noel Cunningham; development specialist, Carla Moore; and Pastor Christopher Morgan of Go for God Family Church. The videos provide viewers with insight into each dimension of health and expose them to tactics they can use to preserve their own wellness.
Other available mental health resources include 888-SAFE SPOT (888-723-3776); the U-Matter Chatline that can be accessed by texting the word SUPPORT to 876-838-4897; as well as the Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Helpline, 888-NEW-LIFE (888-639-5433).
