The Mental Health and Wellness Summit will be held at East Lansing High School on Wednesday, April 24th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
This event is the brainchild of District Mental Health Coordinator Heather Findley.Findley is I joined the company last summer Support and create mental health programs for students.
“We will have about a dozen different local agencies represented who will provide information about the services they offer,” Findlay said. “Most of them are also mental health professionals and can also provide feedback and support if you have any questions.”
The night will also feature therapy dogs, a basketball game, hula hooping, an introduction to mindfulness and meditation, and the empowerment of healthy eating.
Findlay himself is an alumnus of the district.
“East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) continues to be a great advocate for mental health services,” she said. “We have 3,803 students this year and hundreds more staff members. There are a lot of people who have been affected, and the pandemic has certainly not made people’s lives easier. We know the effects will be felt for years and perhaps generations to come.
“One of the things I really admire about ELPS is that they have been at the forefront of recognizing the need for mental health support over the last few years. This is evidenced by the creation of the Mental Health Advisory Committee, which has returned to its hometown this year. [and] This felt like a unique opportunity to tell the entire East Lansing community that everyone matters. We want to bring people together to access resources, create community, and really understand that health is not just mental health, it’s not just physical health, it’s a combination of many things. Masu. ”
When Findlay returned to the district, she discovered a mental health advisory committee was already in place. Mark Foster, a high school math teacher, has been a member since its founding.
“We meet once a month and talk about everything in the district, including mental health, concerns we have, things we need to fix, things that are going well,” he said. . “It was a really great committee. [usually] I don’t like meetings, but this group is more of a running group than a meeting and talking group, and I’m really proud of that. ”
The committee is made up of school staff, students, and community mental health professionals. Founded just five years ago, the organization is one of many ways the district has evolved to address student mental health.
“Earlier this year, we found that one in two students have a mental health problem or are in close contact with someone who has a mental health problem,” Foster said. the professor said.
“Of course, the data on mental health is startling and takes me back. When I first started teaching in 1994, mental health wasn’t talked about. I didn’t get anything about mental health issues from the principal or anything like that. But now, especially since the pandemic, there are more students who are dealing with or are dealing with mental health issues. It has become part and parcel of our educational day to keep an eye on students who may be struggling.”
Findley wants the entire community, not just the students, to know that they are welcome to participate in the summit.
“We want adults to come, and we want the whole community to feel connected to East Lansing,” she said. “We want everyone to feel involved. We try to make sure we offer something exciting and fun for young people. We’re giving away items, making our own sensory slime, and creating little mental health coloring books so we can show that mental health and mental health issues don’t just occur in middle school. We work with young people because we know they can be born younger, and we get into the habit of talking to young people about these things. We want people to feel that supporting their own health in these areas is really important.
“We hope to make this an annual event.”
