Rocky View Schools has added seven staff members to help with mental health and addiction, possibly related to the impact of COVID-19. 

Sherri Black, Director of Learning Support for Rocky View Schools, says two of the new staff members will focus on early childhood. 

“We've added an additional Family School Liaison and a Positive Behaviour Coach for our pre-k, kindergarten, and grade one students. They work with the school and the families that had a harder time moving into structure and routine.” 

Black says, because of COVID, kids might not have been in school so they might need a little help. These two additions to the team will help with that. 

“We also added three middle school counsellors and their role is to provide additional support across our middle schools. Part of that is spending one day a week with students and in some smaller schools, one day every other week.” 

These three counsellors go into classrooms and provide a place for kids to talk about how COVID has impacted them and how to manage peer conflict. They will work alongside classroom teachers to provide conversations around mental health and mental illness to students.

“For our high schools, we hired addictions and mental health workers. They spend one day a week in our high schools.” 

There are a couple of reasons why RVS hired two new members to work in high schools. 

“What's percolating in some schools is more screen time. I don't want to say addictions, but the potential for lots of kids spending a lot of time on screens. Some are counting calories and we're seeing some body dysmorphia as well as increased use of substances for some or across families.” says Black.

The seven new members of the team were not hired to do any one-on-one counselling, they do class-wide, school-wide, or even small-group counselling. The two members that were hired for early childhood will move around with the RVS early childhood team. The three middle school counsellors and the two Mental Health and Addiction Workers are assigned days and times to be at each school. 

Black went on to say that they feel like they already had a really strong approach on these topics and the addition of these members will enhance that. 

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