In recognition of CMHA's Mental Health week, Northlands Parkway Collegiate's guidance department and Garden Valley Collegiate staff wanted to engage students in the conversation of self-care and mental health, hosting activities and presentations throughout the week.

Activities ranged from a presentation by comedian Big Daddy Taz, dieticians discussing nutrition, stress reduction, animal therapy, and a challenge for students to stay off their phones.

A big emphasis was on mental health and how it's affected by external factors, says NPC guidance counsellor Kim Apperley, and what we can do to better balance that health.

"Mental health includes such a variety of areas; it's everything from sleep to nutrition and how it affects mood and stress, exercise, and interacting with other people."

Apperley notes there are many layers and they wanted to design activities that would give justice to those layers and would interest students in participating.

"Society is becoming more aware of the importance of physical and mental health and how interconnected those two are. We're trying to encourage health on both levels, focusing on both physical activity but also things students can do to develop resilience and build coping tools."

She says they hope students had a chance to take one small aspect of their life and improve on it, working on that little part and seeing if it has an impact for the better.