Mila Joubert from the Canadian Mental Health Association answers questions after her presentation to St. Patrick's School students about stress and healthy coping strategies.--NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
St. Patrick’s School hosted its third annual Faith and Wellness Expo on Friday, where students listened to lectures and participated in various activities to demonstrate the importance of physical, emotional and spiritual health.
School principal Dwayne Unreiner says the event fits nicely with the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s priority of building community within its schools.
Faith and wellness are intimately connected with each other through a sense of community, he said.
“How do we take care of ourselves? How do we take care of one another and how do we support one another as a school community?” Unreiner asked rhetorically.
The afternoon-long event included lectures from a faith leader, tae kwon do, breakdancing, gymnastics and more.
Rev. Iqbal of Holy Family Parish, who originally hails from Pakistan, lectured students about his role in the Catholic community, as well as life as a Christian in a Muslim-majority country.
“I love to come to schools, because this is how we get to know the children and they get to know what kind of life we live,” said Iqbal.
“They want to know what we do in the churches and they want to know what our personal life is, because sometimes they think being a priest is a boring life.”
He said he was impressed by the calibre of questions asked by curious students at the end of his lecture.
Mila Joubert, an educator with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s southeastern Alberta branch, talked to students about self care and coping strategies for managing stress.
“It’s really important to educate kids on healthy coping and who they can talk to when they’re experiencing (stress or sadness), because kids aren’t always the ones to get help first or be verbal about their issues,” said Joubert.
“If there is any kind of mental health concern, symptoms usually start to come up at a young age, so it’s good to intervene when they’re still young and open up the communication to getting the help they need.”
She said emotional and spiritual health are two sides to the same coin.
“Coming from a faith-based type of teaching in an organization like this, we’re talking about religion, but spiritual health can also be having a good connection with outdoors, to nature,” said Joubert. “Everybody can have spiritual health, whether they’re with a religion or not.”
