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Published on May 25, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 2 min read
Mental Health Director Darryl Fillmore and Superintendent Brent Vallee attend the Algoma District School Board's board meeting in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Brian Kelly/The Sault Star/Postmedia Network)
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Feelings of anxiety are leading a surprising number of students to seek help from mental health workers at the Algoma District School Board.
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As of late April, more than 9,000 sessions had been conducted with elementary and middle school students, with roughly 10,300 enrolled. That figure is likely an increase from the 2022-23 school year. Anxiety made up a “significant proportion” of those sessions, the committee said.
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“School counselors have caseloads three to four times higher than most community-based mental health services,” Mental Health Director Darryl Fillmore told trustees at a board meeting April 30. “Given these numbers, we simply cannot afford longer, more intensive sessions.”
Most meetings with students last 30 minutes.
The board has 17.5 staff members providing mental health support, and the outcome priorities are short-term interventions to develop coping skills, self-reflection and help-seeking skills, as well as support for emerging mental illnesses that are impeding academic success, Fillmore said.
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The ADSB places emphasis on promoting wellbeing in the early years and “more targeted interventions” for issues such as anxiety and depression in the older years, the committee said.
The Rebound program promotes healthy decision-making, goal setting and the development of personal responsibility and is offered in partnership with Algoma Family Services, except that grade 11 and 12 students act as mentors rather than adults. The older students are past participants of Rebound, as the program has been run by the board for about eight years.
“They feel this program will be extremely helpful and are very excited and thrilled to be able to offer it,” Fillmore said.
The ADSB works with more than 10 partners, including Sault Area Hospital, Algoma Public Health, Community Living Algoma and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
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Qualified staff are hard to find, and retirements and maternity leave last year have put “some pressure” on the board's efforts to ensure there are enough staff available to meet with students, Fillmore said.
“Recruitment in the North remains a significant barrier,” he said, “with the number of mental health roles across the North exceeding the number of qualified applicants.”
Two Algoma University social work students who did practicum work with the board have been offered short-term contracts “until the end of this academic year,” Fillmore said, “and we hope to continue to employ them for the next few years.”
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