Board-wide initiative encourages respect and empathy by Nick Katalifos

by Nick Katalifos

The topic of mental health is the concern of many these days, and different sectors of our society are striving to achieve a better mental well-being for patients, family members, friends, students. The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is no exception. 

For most, “school” is a place of learning, accomplishing, making friends – a place where the youngest to the oldest students feel safe, cared for and enlightened. To create this type of place takes an incredibly dedicated group of people: teachers, support staff, administrators, school secretaries and caretakers – people who have the best interests of our students in mind, who take care of them and the buildings they go to every day. They are also our family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues – and can have struggles of their own.

Living through a pandemic has taught us some hard lessons. But we come through it with one we can celebrate, which is that we’ll never turn back from taking care of mental health – our own and that of those around us. And it starts with the smallest gestures of civility: addressing the person who answers the phone politely, behaving with self-control when faced with a difficult situation, employing ways of working with each other that are open-minded. Just as children absorb those behavioural gestures at home, so do our students absorb a culture of respect when they are at school. As a society, we are likely to see a betterment to mental well-being if we can practise civility and be caring to ourselves and others. 

At the end of the day, it’s our students who thrive, in all aspects of health, if “school” is a place infused with positivity and respect. This is one reason why we launched our board-wide Respect campaign. 

We have learned that we must continually strive to look after one another, provide support early on and make our resources known and accessible. We are proud to announce that in December, we are launching an online, on-demand resource for our employees that will include extensive expert education and advice on a variety of subjects including well-being, life skills, guided meditation, breathing exercises and more. 

This platform, called Lifespeak, will complement our existing partnership with Lifeworks and the Employee Assistance Program.

We are also providing mentoring/coaching services for our in-school administrators, with particular emphasis on principals who do not have a V.P. 

The board is supporting the Recognition Committee, which acknowledges the work of our employees who have gone above and beyond.

I am pleased that Inspirations is folding in the focus on mental health and look forward to many informative editions moving forward.

Nick Katalifos is the director general of the English Montreal School Board, board member of the Transforming Autism Care Consortium and special advisor to Inspirations.