Mental health literacy course for school leaders
Online Course
MH LIT – Mental Health in Action for school leaders
The MH LIT – Mental Health in Action course is designed to provide school leaders with basic knowledge and information related to mental health, strategies to enhance student mental health, and everyday practices that can be used in the school and classroom.
LEARN about mental health.
INSPIRE through your actions.
TEACH in ways that encourage belonging and that support student mental health.
Duration: 6 hours
Format: 6 learning modules, self-paced, online
Result: certificate of completion for your portfolio
What to expect
MH LIT for School Leaders illuminates the connection between learning and mental health and helps school leaders to advance their leadership practice in this area.
The course consists of six one-hour modules covering the following topics:
Gain a deeper understanding about mental health, and leadership strategies through which you and school staff can promote mental health within the school and classroom environment.
Take a more in-depth look at the components of a mentally healthy school and classrooms, ways in which to enhance and maintain mentally healthy classroom environments and consider strategies and resources to support the development of mentally healthy schools.
What are culturally responsive social and emotional skills, and how does it enhance student mental health within the learning environment? Learn specific strategies that educators can use to embed SEL in their classroom and learn how to build capacity, commitment and ownership for a whole school approach.
As awareness about mental health has increased, so has the volume of information for school leaders and educators to consider. It can be challenging to determine what information is reliable and what approaches are best in the classroom. This module will help school leaders to facilitate conversations about mental health within the school and classroom that are both safe and sensitive, including explicit teaching and modelling of behaviours.
Educators help support student resiliency, strengths, and cultural assets, and are well-positioned to notice when a student might be struggling with a mental health problem. Knowing the signs of common mental health problems, and how to provide classroom support, can help you with your role. In your role, knowing the signs of common mental health problems, will be helpful in assisting educators to provide effective classroom support.
Educators may have students who require additional internal and/or external services and support for their mental health concerns. This module provides an understanding of the elements of a circle of support and the school leader’s role. It also explores how to talk to and partner with families to support a student experiencing mental health difficulties.
The course will help you:
- deepen your understanding of student mental health
- learn practical strategies
- enhance school and classroom culture
- have access to and find additional helpful resources
- align your work with the Ontario College of Teachers’ advisory related to student mental health
- align your work with the updated Ontario curriculum
The course is free, self-paced and takes about six hours to complete. You’ll receive a certificate of completion at the end.
Start learning
The course is hosted in the Ministry of Education’s e-community, an online learning hub.
School leaders and superintendents 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 Elementary 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
Currently, the course is available to the following groups:
- Educators, including occasional teachers and early childhood educators, school leaders and superintendents currently employed by a publicly funded school board in Ontario
- Mental health leaders and managers of social work and psychology
We are working on providing broader access.