(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Coping with COVID-19

P.A. Catholic School Division focuses on mental health training to support students through pandemic

Feb 10, 2021 | 2:22 PM

The Prince Albert Catholic School Division has bolstered mental health training for staff in response to the pandemic.

Superintendent of Education Charity Dmytruk told paNOW the school year began with Red Cross psychological first aid training for all staff. Most recently, $9,000 was spent on online suicide prevention training, trauma response training and two sessions focused on how to support students as they returned to in-class learning.

“We knew with the year of COVID that we needed to look to access different funding and resources to support our students,” Dmytruck said.

Disrupted routines have been particularly hard on students, she said so training for how to ease the transition back into the classroom after weeks spent online learning was especially useful. Some suggestions were as simple as encouraging connections via telephone or Zoom calls.

“Sometimes we don’t realize the impact that having a phone call with someone can have,” she said.

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All of this year’s mental health initiatives, including regular anti-bullying programs, were guided by the framework of the “caring for ourselves and others,” Dmytruk said.

“The more healthy we are, the more able we are to care for others,” she explained.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom