CANADA
‘Mental health’ room a place for solace
An empty classroom doesn’t have to sit and do nothing.
St. Teresa School is in the city’s north end, where enrolment is declining and classrooms are falling empty one by one. But one of those classrooms is getting a new life as a “mental health room” for the remaining students, teachers and parents.
Students call it The Hub. The rugs, tables, chairs and drapes are all a peaceful green colour. There’s space in one corner for a calming yoga class, with mats ready to be used. In another part of the room, a library is set up for parents and children to help them get information on everything from divorce to attention deficit disorder. A pile of colourful cushions in one corner invites relaxation.
The idea for such a room is a rare concept in Canada, although more common in the United States. It can be a place for a teacher and student to spend quiet time, or for a guest speaker to come in and give parents or teachers a presentation. A religion class could be held there, or even an aromatherapy session.
“It’s a super idea,” said Roger Lawler, education director for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. He said the room offers “the holistic approach to addressing what I call the mind, body and soul …If you could institute it in as many schools as possible, that would be great.”
The idea for the room came from a group of Grade 7 students, as well as Jessica Stevens, a volunteer at the school who recently earned a degree in psychology, and Michelle Flood, a child and youth worker at the school. “We have a lot of students in our schools who deal with a lot of things — ADHD, family issues,” said Grade 7 student Maggie Daly. “We look around at recess and see some children just sitting there — sad, excluded — and we don’t know what to do.”
Maggie and her classmates, assisted by Stevens and Flood, applied for a $5,000 grant from the provincial centre of excellence for child and youth mental health at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario to create and furnish the room.
Already, St. Teresa is in a program where Grade 7 students visit regularly with children with mental disabilities, a partnership that will continue in the fall in the same room.
“It’s excellent,” said Flood. “The kids with disabilities are opening up a whole lot more. They’ve formed a significant bond with the children they’ve hooked up with.”
Luisa D’Amato
24 June 2010
