Canadá: New Girl Guides program aims to fill mental health education gap

Canadá/Enero de 2017/Fuente: CBC News

A candle-lighting event is being held Saturday night in Saskatoon in support of the Girl Guides’ new Mighty Minds program, which aims to educate girls and young women on mental health issues.

«We started to hear very regularly that [the girls] were interested in talking about mental health,» Jill Zelmanovits, CEO of Girl Guides Canada, said. «But that there was a bit of a gap in terms of what programs were out there that were specifically about girls.»

Girl Guides wanted to fill that gap, she said.

«I think there’s a real feeling where people know it’s a problem and they know that girls are in this kind of pressure cooker of a world. But what do you do?»

Working together for Mighty Minds

For the past two years, Girl Guides has been working with Kids Help Phone, the Psychology Foundation of Canada and Olympian Cheryl Pounder on the Mighty Minds program. It launched a few weeks ago.

Zelmanovits said there has already been a lot of positive feedback on the program, which offers the education to girls from ages five to 17.

«When you’re talking about little, young girls, they don’t have vocabulary like ‘stigma’ and ‘resilience,'» Zelmanovits said. But she said using engaging, interactive activities helps girls of all ages talk about mental health.

One such activity is using an orange to symbolize a girl. Each girl involved in the activity is asked to say something that would hurt the girl’s feelings. Each time something is said, a pin is put in the orange. Zelmanovits said that often, girls say things that have been said to them during the activity.

At the end, each girl is asking to say something nice to the «girl.» The pins are taken out, one by one.

«That mark is still there,» Zelmanovits said.

The program is already evolving, with Zelmanovits saying some girls have decided they want to journal as part of it. Information is also offered on the Girl Guides website for parents and teachers to access.

Saskatoon’s event is being held at the Travelodge Hotel from 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. CST.

Fuente: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/girl-guides-mental-health-1.3946806