9 more mental health classrooms opening in communities across Alberta

Alberta is opening nine more mental health classrooms in communities across the province this month.

In partnership with CASA Mental Health, the new classrooms are a part of the province’s plan to open 60 classrooms by 2026 to help students in Grades 4 to 12 deal with mental health challenges.

"These dedicated classrooms are there to help children so they can transition into their classroom, get them into a spot where they have an opportunity at recovery as well in spite of the mental health challenges," Dan Williams, Alberta’s minister of mental health and addiction, said at an event Wednesday.

The province says the CASA classrooms provide students experiencing complex mental health challenges with professional care, without disrupting their education.

Each classroom is staffed with a full-time teacher, mental health therapist, mental health aide and other support staff.

"These classrooms are modelled in a way that allows us to provide direct service to kids, while they’re learning," Bonnie Blakley, the chief executive officer of CASA Mental Health, said.

"You receive individual group programming, psychiatric care, medication management, all individualized for you specifically while you’re in that classroom."

Alicia Long, a mother of two, knows the toll mental health can take on a child.

“I watched her schoolwork, her social interactions, just completely decline,” Long said.

“As a parent, it’s absolutely heartbreaking because you want to help them, we just didn’t know how.”

Long said a traumatic incident left her 11-year-old daughter with severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She struggled to overcome her mental health challenges until her mother switched her to a new school to get her into a CASA mental health classroom.

“She was calmer, a lot more relaxed. I think she was just with her people,” she said.

The nine new classrooms that opened this month will be available in the following schools:

• Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary;
• St. Cyril School in Calgary;
• St. Joseph Catholic High School in Edmonton;
• Rosslyn Junior High School in Edmonton;
• Bev Facey Community High School in Sherwood Park;
• H.E. Bourgoin School in Bonnyville;
• Senator Riley School in High River;
• St. Gabriel School in Fort McMurray; and
• Pines Alternative School in Red Deer.

They join eight other CASA classrooms that are operating in:

• Fort Saskatchewan Elementary in Fort Saskatchewan;
• J.A. Fife School in Edmonton;
• St. Gabriel Catholic School in Edmonton;
• Guthrie School in Sturgeon County;
• Sturgeon Composite High School in Sturgeon County;
• Escuela Vista Grande School in Red Deer;
• South View Community School in Medicine Hat; and
• Wetaskiwin Outreach School (C.B. McMurdo) in Wetaskiwin.

The province says once the 60 classrooms are open, they will support approximately 1,500 students annually in about 140 Alberta communities.

Mandy Lamoureux, the president of CUPE Local 3550, said there is a growing need for more mental health funding in schools, but wants to see those dollars directed to training education assistants who are already in the classroom.

“The need in the classroom has dramatically changed. Violence in our school systems has dramatically increased as well,” Lamoureux said.

“Who better to support our students than the ones who work directly with them all day, every day.”

There are two intake opportunities each year, in September and February. Each classroom can accommodate 12 students at a time, from anywhere within the school division’s boundary.

The program is part of a $197 million investment by the province between 2023-2026, which includes $70 million specifically to open up the CASA mental health classrooms.

The remaining funding also helps fund CASA houses and other specialty services.

Student advocate Wing Li wants to see funds allocated to school boards to ensure every school can access these resources.

“While this program is going to benefit a group of students in hyper-localized communities, it’s not going to be enough on a wider scale,” said Wing Li, with Support Our Students.

“If we don’t get this right and let hundreds of the thousands of kids fall through these cracks, then we have a generation of children who are suffering.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski