{"id":40586,"date":"2017-12-09T13:53:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T20:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=40586"},"modified":"2018-02-12T19:29:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T02:29:12","slug":"sait-residence-cas-pitch-in-to-help-promote-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/12\/09\/sait-residence-cas-pitch-in-to-help-promote-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"SAIT Residence CA’s pitch in to help promote mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>s the first semester winds to a close, the SAIT Residence Life Team has been busy tackling the issue of residents’ mental health.<\/p>\n

N<\/span>ovember of the fall term is widely considered by students to be a high-stress period, situated right between midterm exams and finals.<\/p>\n

As a result, SAIT Residence made November the focus of its mental health push, in both programming and promotion.<\/p>\n

Katrina Slemp is a second-year Business student and a Community Assistant who lives in Begin Tower.<\/p>\n

Slemp described this time of year as stressful and overwhelming and said residents are often being homesick, or depressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI highly advise a reading week in the fall,\u201d Slemp said.<\/p>\n

Slemp has also noticed a marked change in the behaviour of some residents since they moved in, in September.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Slemp has been seeing people who had kept to themselves hanging out in residences common rooms, studying and socializing, while those who weren\u2019t big into partying are now doing so in what she believes is a bid to \u2018relieve stress.\u2019<\/p>\n

Like other CA\u2019s, Slemp has put up personalized boards in high traffic areas to raise awareness of mental health and help residents recognize symptoms of stress and depression in themselves and others.<\/p>\n

Slemp doesn\u2019t believe the boards alone are enough, but says, \u201cthe programs to help teach people about the seriousness of mental illness will help as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slemp herself ran an event to promote mental health awareness on Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Residents take beads for their mental health bracelets at Katrina Slemp’s Mental Health Bracelets Program. SAIT Begin Tower Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017. (Photo by Patrick Davies\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The program revolved around the idea of creating a mental health bracelet. For each condition, Slemp described that could affect residents or their friends. participants selected a corresponding bead.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Katrina Slemp’s questions ranging from personal to mental health. In Begin Tower Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017. (Photo by Patrick Davies\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the end, the bracelets demonstrated that mental illness is common rather than rare and dispelled similar misconceptions.<\/p>\n

Slemp also cited SAIT\u2019s \u2018Student Development and Counselling\u2019 Centre as a resource Residence relies upon, as well as certain pro-staff team members with experience in psychology.<\/p>\n

Student Development and Counselling<\/a> offer support in many areas residents often struggle with, both personal and academic, such a stress, depression and career direction.<\/p>\n

Esther Malo, a first-year business student and a fellow CA, based her sign boards on an idea she found on Pinterest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is here at rez I\u2019ve noticed it\u2019s our job to get students involved but everyone is in their bubbles,\u201d Malo said.<\/p>\n

Her boards presented several common negative mindsets such as, \u2018I can\u2019t do it,\u201d and flipping them to their positive opposite, \u2018I can do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite this Malo felt both she and the rest of the team could be doing more to help their residents’ mental health.<\/p>\n

The thing is here at rez I\u2019ve noticed it\u2019s our job to get students involved but everyone is in their bubbles. – Esther Malo<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEveryone needs help every now and then,\u201d Malo declared, adding that while residents may not come to the programs designed to help them, that doesn\u2019t mean the team should stop trying to engage them on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Malo believes it\u2019s their job to check in with their residents as \u2018everyone needs someone to talk to\u2019 and make sure they\u2019re okay, especially at this time of year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community Assistants share the methods they use to tackle mental health and their thoughts on its effectiveness as the first semester nears the homestretch. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":431,"featured_media":40662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S4 SAIT Resident Mental Health","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1109,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-mental-health","9":"category-campus-2","10":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/431"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40586"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43056,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40586\/revisions\/43056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}