What is our Ministry of Ed is doing right now to ensure our kids who live in EXISTING trauma have supports? I am livid. We haven’t had enough teacher counsellors, youth & childcare counsellors or EAs in schools for over a decade. This year? Hours were cut. #BCed #BCpoli @jjhorgan

If ‘mental health matters’ government needs to walk the walk. Trauma in childhood and lack of services for those children impacts EVERYTHING in society. Those children deserve better. We need nurses, psychologists, more counsellors, full time hours for youth & childcare workers.

If you are reading this thread, please help in 3 ways:

1) retweet AND tag MLAs and members of the media, family advocates so it falls on their radar.

2) share your lived experiences to illustrate reality. Add it to the thread below.

3) bring this up at staff committee ASAP.

I am in a Facebook group for families with ADHD, and they are *suffering.* The families are exhausted, often ADHD is multigenerational / genetic. They get no respite, and there is no funding for supporting ADHD in our school system. This is school-and-society-inflicted trauma.

If you are a member of the public reading this, please help in these 3 ways:
1) email school trustees about this. Hold them accountable.

2) email MLAs. Hold them accountable for student + family mental health. Demand they add services to our school staffing.

3) spread the word

Increasing diverse physical activities & mental health staff in schools will have directly beneficial impact on families’ ability to participate in the workforce, and the children’s future achievement (or system dependency.) What do we hope for, for ALL children? No matter what?

People act like our children aren’t growing up with climate change denial in the media and mass consumption and under-serviced learning environments. Kids need support in schools even without worrying about climate change or experiencing Covid trauma. Tag media & government.

I don’t use the word triage lightly. We have been triaging in schools for decades now, forced to choose how we direct scarcity of time, knowing deep down it’s not nearly enough. Which child can we focus on in that moment? Whose needs won’t get met? That traumatizes *us* too.

Teachers: you can ask your staff committee to advocate more CCW / CCW hours. You can ask your staff committee for a collective letter testifying to the need, signed by your entire staff, and send it to superintendent, union, trustees, government. Collective grassroots action.

Change is possible; where there is a will, there is a way, but ONLY if the public collectively and strongly demonstrates their will. Government is supposed to work for the public good and the public need. We need to do our part to ensure government knows what we need. Speak up.

This is urgent. It cannot wait. This is a policy window - we all know mental health needs have been increasing. The world is complex, increasingly polarized, families are worn thin, educators are worn thin. Children and teens pay the price. What could that look like in 20 yrs?

Professionalize education assistants. Give them professional standards and full time hours. They’re not even paid hours to attend our so-called ‘staff’ meetings. It’s not a staff meeting if only teachers are paid to attend. & Childcare workers are childcare and youth COUNSELLORS.

My mom was a kindergarten teacher in inner-city Burnaby. I grew up knowing about trauma from dinner table conversations about dilemmas she faced daily. I am humbled by 5 year olds who grow up in poverty, Heck we need therapists specifically for families + educators in schools.

I recently found out they used to be called “youth and childcare counsellors” and the rhetoric of the label ‘worker’ replacing ‘counsellor’ contributes to deprofessionalization. Also? Trauma informed practice is a NEW endeavour in many districts. The ministry should do better.