Mental health literacy course for guidance educators
Guidance educators play a key role in students’ social development and emotional well-being. Mental health literacy enhances guidance educators’ ability to recognize student needs, provide informed support, and foster a safe, mentally healthy school environment.
Online Course
MH LIT – Mental Health in Action for Guidance Educators
The MH LIT – Mental Health in Action for Guidance Educators course is designed to help enhance the knowledge and confidence of guidance educators in supporting the mental health and well-being of students.
Although this course is focused on the role of guidance educators, please note that student success teachers, Chaplains, chaplaincy teachers and/or graduation coaches, often play a similar and related function in school boards, and this course content may be relevant to their role.
Duration: 3 hours
Format: 3 learning modules, self-paced, online
Result: certificate of completion for your portfolio
What to expect
The course consists of three one-hour modules covering the following topics:
- Module A: Mental Health Foundations
- Module B: The Role of the Guidance Educator in Mental Health Promotion and Early Identification and Support
- Module C: Supporting Students with Mental Health Concerns in the Guidance Office
Module A: Mental Health Foundations
Gain a deeper understanding of identity affirming mental health, and the relationship between mental health and mental illness. This module also provides a description of the multi-tiered model for school mental health.
Module B: The Role of the Guidance Educator in Mental Health Promotion and Early Identification and Support
Dig deeper into the important role you play promoting student mental health, recognizing and responding to emerging concerns, and strengthening student coping skills. Learn more about proactive strategies, school-based supports, and effective ways to engage parents and caregivers in conversations about mental health.
Module C: Supporting Students with Mental Health Concerns in the Guidance Office
This module explores the 6Rs of Connection framework and strategies like emotional validation to support students in the moment. It also builds understanding of substance use prevention, the vital role of guidance educators in suicide prevention and life promotion, supporting students with complex mental health needs, and the importance of self-care in sustaining this work.
The course will help:
- To build your own mental health literacy
- Serve as a trusted reference to provide information to colleagues and resource teams when needed
- Offer information and resources that can be used to support students and their families and strengthen partnerships with parents/caregivers.
Start learning
The course is hosted in the Ministry of Education’s e-community, an online learning hub.
Guidance educators (and those in similar roles, e.g., student success teachers, chaplains, graduation coaches) currently employed by a publicly funded school board in Ontario.
You’ll access the course through your school board’s e-learning/virtual learning environment.
Go to the login page for your school board instance of the virtual learning environment (https://xxxxx.elearningontario.ca). If you’re not sure how to find the page, use the dropdown menu below.
Sign in using your school board credentials.
Once logged in, scroll down the page until you see a box labelled My Courses in Other Orgs.
Inside the box, you will see a link to a community called eCommunities Available for Self-Registration.
Click on that link and you will be taken directly into eCommunity. Choose Professional Learning and Teaching. You will see Mental Health in Action for Guidance Educators. Click to self-register.
Mental health leaders, managers of social work and psychology
You’ll access the course directly through the Ministry of Education’s e-community using the login credentials that were provided to you.
Course availability
The course is available to the following groups:
- Guidance educators (and those in similar roles, e.g., student success teachers, chaplains, graduation coaches) currently employed by a publicly funded school board in Ontario
- Mental health leaders and managers of social work and psychology
Fortier, A., Lalonde, G., Venesoen, P., Legwegoh, A. F., & Short, K. H. (2017). Educator mental health literacy to scale: From theory to practice. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 10(1), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/1754730X.2016.1252276
Ontario College of Teachers (2018). Professional Advisory: Supporting Students’ Mental Health. https://www.oct.ca/-/media/pdfs/Mental%20Health%20Professional%20Advisory/2018%20ProfessionalAdvisorySupportingstudentsmentalhealth_ENweb.pdf
Pinto-Foltz, M. D., Logsdon, M. C., & Myers, J. A. (2011). Feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of a knowledge contact program to reduce mental illness stigma and improve mental health literacy in adolescents. Social Science & Medicine, 72, 2011–2019.
