Mental health funding makes way for local schools collaboration

By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on October 6, 2022.

reporter@medicinehatnews.com

A combination of learning is going on with a collaboration taking place between the three local school districts and Medicine Hat College. The school districts have received funding through the Beej funding project to get more mental health support in place.

Lorelei Boschman, chair of education at Medicine Hat College, runs the four-year Bachelor of Education degree program, which is the pre-service teacher education program, and felt her pre-service teachers should be in on this project as well.

“We decided because we have a new mental health wellness curriculum from Alberta Education this year that our teachers would support the Beej initiative monies that are going in to support the mental health of students in our community.”

The fourth-year pre-service teachers are completing a nine-week practicum called Social Issues and will supply mental health lessons and experiences in classrooms for a couple hours each week until January. From January until April, they will be gong into the classrooms full time and will be able to carry on with the program.

Pre-service teachers will talk about things such as self-image, interpersonal communication, or conflict resolution. Each grade has a different wellness curriculum and pre-service teachers will become familiar with the new Alberta Education mental health and wellness curriculum. The new curriculum teachers are mandated to follow is called Phys-Ed Wellness.

“Our focus with this initiative is towards students in and around Medicine Hat. Pre-service teachers at Medicine Hat College will now have the opportunity to explore the new mental health/wellness curriculum and deliver these ideas to their practicum students. This is a real benefit to the students and the pre-service teachers as they enter their careers next year,” stated Boschman.

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