October is National Mental Illness Awareness Month and W.C. Miller Collegiate in Altona has created activities to engage students.

Denise Tonna, Guidance Counsellor for the school, explained that she posted QR codes throughout the school building as a scavenger hunt.

"For the remainder of the month I have posted some QR codes around the building and I'm encouraging students to scan the QR codes with their personal devices, and that code will take them to a link about a particular mental illness," she explained.

W.C Miller Collegiate Guidance Counsellor Denise Tonna

Students could win a prize if they submit all of the article topics from the QR codes.

Also, Tonna has put up a poster near the cafeteria, which has a theme of looking at failure in a different way.

"There are a various number of different famous people who have failed throughout their lives and then continued on, and never given up, and become extreme successes. So there are some failure stories and when you... lift up the paper, it tells you all about the famous person and who they are and what they've become," she said.

Tonna added there is a difference between the mental illness and mental health awareness months.

"Some of the QR codes we have around the building will lead to websites that talk about things like bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, depression, things like suicide and obsessive compulsive disorder," she said.

She noted it is important to get rid of the stigma surrounding these mental illnesses.

"There are so many people who are affected by this, and if you aren't personally affected by it, we all know somebody who's been affected by it, and it's important for those people to be able to step forward and ask for what they need in order to be successful and not feel ashamed about it."

Tonna also noted that the school is working on creating a peer support network, which will train students to help their peers if necessary.

"The peer support network will have a huge role in creating a safe environment, community environment, within the school, and an inclusive environment as well," said Tonna. "So when Mental Health Awareness Week comes the first week of May, they will play a large part in what that's going to look like within the school."

The peer support network involves training two male students and two female students from each grade.

"It is in the works, we are building it right now, we're pretty close to having all of our spots filled," said Tonna. "They will be those students who are consciously aware of other students in the building who may be having difficulties, who may be alone during lunch hours, or not feel connected in a classroom, not necessarily have other peers around that they're connecting with."

"Our peer support network will be those who will reach out to those students... and they will be trained on when to refer that student to an adult. They won't need to handle big issues on their own, they will kind of be like the middle person to bridge the gap," she added.

Tonna noted the training will also outline how the peer support group can take care of themselves as well as others.

"When you're a helper within the school, within any environment, it can take a toll on you, or you may not know how to help necessarily, or how to take care of yourself after helping someone, so we do a lot of training around that as well," she said.

Training for the peer support network will take place in November.