Promoting mental health in school communities
22 October 2021
October is Emotional Health Awareness Month and the Cape Winelands Education District (CWED) Learner Support Services teamed up with Good Hope Psychological Services to promote mental health amongst all schools in the district.
The exciting campaign challenges and encourages school communities to make emotional health visible through various activities.
Schools were invited to appoint an Emotional Health Ambassador who will coordinate the mental health initiative at the school. Members of the district-based support team visited schools and handed out posters with information about 24-hour mental health helplines.
A treasure box with ready-made mental health activities and ideas on themes was launched. This can be accessed on CWED Digital Resourcing (https://sites.google.com/wced.info/cwed-learnerresources/home or by clicking Mental Health Treasure Box (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1p5ftIpDbZ0z-W8AHqZJhmoD-uc-90C9O).
Schools were also invited to support Good Hope Psychological Services with their Hat Day Sticker initiative.
The purpose of this campaign was to make everyone mindful of the ways and opportunities that exist to promote emotional health for all. Although the campaign was focused on schools in Cape Winelands, all schools in the province are encouraged to participate.
The Learner Support Services team expressed the hope that schools will be part of this journey which can result in motivation, healing, and the promotion of growth.