Technolandy

Day 27 (of 2024/25) #WorldMentalHealthDay thanks to @heylandsberg for the reminder of #sicknotweak @sicknotweak 

World Mental Health Day on October 10 aims to raise awareness and spotlight the importance of mental health education on a global level. The Ministry of Education and Child Care’s Mental Health in Schools Strategy has resources available to support the mental health and well-being of school communities.

• The refreshed erase (Expect Respect and a Safe Education) site includes a Mental Health & Substance Use section which provides information and resources on mental health for students, adults, and school staff. The erase Have a conversation section also includes information on how to talk about mental health with children and youth.
• Language Matters! An Introductory Guide for Understanding Mental Health and Substance Use: A Resource for Educators and School Communities supports mental health literacy and building capacity in the K to 12 system to facilitate conversations, build common understandings and support practice of mental health and substance use concepts and terms.
• The Decision-Making Tool: Supporting Educators in Selecting Mental Health and Substance Use Resources (English) (Français) is an optional toolkit to support educators in identifying appropriate and effective mental health and substance use resources for their learners.

The tricky part remains – the brain adds on so many factors when it comes to empathy for mental health compared to physical health. Sneezing and coughing? Go/stay home. Headache or chronic ache? Prove it… Brace/cast on joint? Take it easy… paralyzing anxiety making it (as I like to say) so that the hardest door to go through is the open one? Suck it up and get going… 

This year, there are key messages that are making it clear that mental health and work are strongly connected (and validating that if you’re not well… you’re. not. well. But as Michael Landsberg nicely puts it: #sicknotweak – you’re not broken.. you’re just not ‘good to go’ – same as a flu… or other illness… if it’s a short period, that’s normal… but if you were throwing up for a week (or so anxious/depressed for a week of not being able to get out of bed) that is when you go see a professional doctor for some support and guidance – don’t self medicate for physical nor mental wellness…

And as for work, the key messages are:

• Mental health and work are closely linked (leading to job (un)satisfaction and (un)productivity
• Workers face risks to mental health (just as you may be to your physical health)
• Impact on individuals is noticeable – absences; enjoyment; carryover to personal lives…
• Wider impact on work and society; much like events such as the release of the latest John Madden Football game… depression and anxiety result in the loss of workdays (12 billion for mental reasons – not as many for the video game – though it is still noticeable…!)
• Stigma creates barriers to enjoyment: when people roll their eyes because someone is talking about mental health… they’ll stop talking about their mental health…
• Supporting workers to participate and thrive in work means that jobs need to factor in things like more frequent breaks (Finnish school model that I love is 45 minutes of work & a 15 minute distraction break) and being okay with more medicine being stored at work…
• Training managers to support mental health is important – especially when someone is going through a trauma (family death) and may not be as aware of their health and welfare as they ought to be – the outside brain/coach can be very helpful
• Government action and collaboration are essential – I remain hopeful that in our upcoming education contract negotiations that mental health days be better defined because there is guilt right now when someone works out an excuse to take a sick day when they are physically okay, but not well mentally… sick is sick. 
• Taking care of your own mental health is important – but when those positive strategies aren’t working… be careful before you seek stimulants or other non-prescribed tools (like wine nights… thc gummies… be careful of too much bad choices – sugars and salts are not great in the long run)…

1 în 3 people are affected by neurological conditions (probably even higher than that – it’s kind of like tracking how many people have had the flu…) so this isn’t rare nor new – just better identified and willing to be talked about; and the more we talk about it, the better it will be for everyone!

Be well and remember, even though it sometimes feels like it… you’re not alone!

Suicide & Crisis LinesConnect to a crisis responder for help in English or French without judgment. Call 1-833-456-4566 toll-free, any time – or text 45645 from 4 p.m. to midnight ET.