On Thursday, February 23, four Fossil Ridge High School students and two staff members, along with hundreds of students and staff from other middle and high schools, attended a mental health conference at Colorado State University. The conference was aimed at reforming the practices surrounding the mental health of students in and out of the Poudre School District.
Mental health is not a new problem in schools. Students struggle with everything from stress to mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, daily. This conference was aimed and changing the strategies used in schools to make them more kid-friendly. Fossil specifically discussed a change in availability and access to the Wellness Center, a sort of group therapy club, and normalizing the concept of mental health within the school.The day consisted of a Keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and time to discuss within your school how to make a difference in the field of mental health.
Chris Strater, the keynote speaker, taught the group about the innerworking of the brain and how that relates to mental health. Her philosophy was the majority of problems that students experience can be solved by treating the brain better. The brain requires movement to think efficiently, so she encouraged tapping your foot or squeezing a stress ball. Throughout her presentation, Strater included games such as running to touch walls, and walking across the room to talk to someone new to stimulate the brain and keep the crowd focused.
“Understanding the brain and how it works helps us be able to understand mental health better, and work with it. It all happens in that synaptic cleft, and there’s a lot of pharmaceutical companies pushing a lot of pills, when if we do it more naturally, it helps just as much, if not more, and at a lesser cost cause movements free,” said Strater.
After the keynote speaker finished, breakout session one began. Students were given the choice to tour the CSU Rec Center, or learn a dance from Fossil’s very own Ms.Orwick. These were intended as a “brain break” before lunch.
After lunch, students could choose two of the breakout sessions. The first was called “Lead the Change Colorado,” and taught students to be more unified with other people to provide support. The next was called “Health Around the World,” and consisted of a panel of CSU students and professors from all around the world who shared what health meant in their respective country. The final breakout session was called “Stress Reduction and Mindfulness,” and gave students tools to wind down with they are feeling particularly stressed.
Overall, the conference left students and teachers with strategies to make learning a better experience and to live a less stress filled life.
