W.L. Seaton Secondary, a Vernon, BC school unveiled the #YellowIsForHello student mental health awareness campaign yesterday in a ceremony attended by 900+ students, alumni, faculty, and community members. The effort to bring The Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench to...
Being Honest About Your Anxiety and Depression
Depression is not new. Itās an ailment that can be traced back to Mesopotamian time when it was called āmelancholia.ā Itās an illness that affects a large portion of the population ā all ages ā in some form or another. Similar to the way someone could suffer...
4 Breathing Exercises to Help Battle Student Stress and Anxiety
The physical reaction our bodies have to the stress and anxiety experienced by our brains can be debilitating for many students but it doesn't have to be. There are proven breathing exercises that can truly help alleviate the physical reactions our bodies...
Mental Health Support Services – For Students Who Donāt Need It
Here at The Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench, together with our partner schools, weāve been working hard to connect students suffering from stress, anxiety, and/or depression with available on- and off-campus mental health resources. We know that too many students are...
A Letter to Parents Surviving a Childās Suicide
I recently passed the one year anniversary of my 19 year old sonās death by suicide. In that time Iāve experienced the rollercoaster of emotions you would expect someone in my shoes to endure. This journey has been complicated by the creation of a mental health...
How To Talk To Friends Suffering With Mental Illness
More and more studies point to the link between strong friendships and good mental health. A study from the Journal of The National Medical Association in the US, for example, discovered that those people with āinsufficient perceived social support were most likely to...
Dealing With Stress On Campus
Are you Experiencing Unhealthy Stress? Entering post-secondary education is a stressful experience for everyone, regardless of ethnicity, income, or gender. Stress is part of life and isn't always a bad thing. That said, there is definitely unhealthy stress that...
Conversations Over a Child’s Grave
It's not uncommon for parents to fantasize about their children's future, especially when they are first born. We wonder about their personalities and how they will develop; we look into their eyes and predict what career they'll have. We go so far as to plan the...