DENSA Puts Focus on Mental Health and Well-Being

Posted On Monday December 07, 2020
Yusra Baloch, therapist and clinical social worker at Wellness Care Counselling, shared helpful tips for taking care of yourself, children and youth during the Wellness Wednesday event on November 25.
Yusra Baloch, therapist and clinical social worker at Wellness Care Counselling, shared helpful tips for taking care of yourself, children and youth during the Wellness Wednesday event on November 25.

The virtual fall wellness series covered a variety of topics from a South Asian perspective

From November 2-25, the Durham Educators’ Network for South Asians (DENSA) hosted virtual events for the Durham District School Board (DDSB) community focused on well-being and mental health.

“We are in an unusual school year. We as a team recognized that everyone’s well-being is impacted and that it would benefit everyone to focus on topics that allow us to spend time on our mental health and well-being,” notes Kavita Kanavalli, Chair of DENSA and Vice Principal at Pickering High School.

“We also incorporated South Asian themes into each of our wellness events.”

The events were as follows: Mindful Monday – Yoga for Mental Well-Being, Talk About Tuesday – Author Reading, Food Friday – Cooking Together and Wellness Wednesday – Mental Health.

Wellness Wednesday

In the Mental Health event, registered nurses from Durham Region Health Department and social workers from Wellness Care Counselling shared helpful advice for managing mental health and how to connect with children and youth about their own wellness.

When discussing how to emotionally support children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yusra Baloch, therapist and clinical social worker at Wellness Care Counselling, explained “Let your children know it’s OK to not be OK. Be mindful of how you communicate with them, listen actively and be present in the conversation.”

Baloch added, “As a parent or caregiver, it’s also important to take care of yourself. Connecting with your friends is still important, even if it’s accomplished in alternative ways (i.e. virtually). Through connecting we become mentally well.”

Food Friday

In the Cooking Together event, families watched as chef Shankar Balachandran, owner of the restaurant Southern Aroma in Markham and DDSB parent, made pumpkin curry with Sri Lankan spices. Balachandran was joined in the kitchen by Senthuran Paramasamy, Innovative Education Facilitator at the DDSB.

Affirming Identity & Sharing South Asian Culture

“Especially during a pandemic, we wanted to create a way for our students to learn from the experts within our South Asian community. Through these events, we hope that our South Asian students had the opportunity to feel proud of their background and hope that we validated and affirmed their identity,” said Tharmila Apputhurai, Co-Chair of DENSA and DDSB English as a Second Language (ESL) Coach.

“We also hope that we provided an opportunity for all students and teachers to learn something new from our experts. We wanted to connect our educators and community members/parents as partners when thinking about delivering the curriculum content in culturally responsive and relevant ways in our classrooms.”

You can watch some of the engaging videos that DENSA created for their fall wellness series by visiting their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEBatoCR1_ziHn4y_vJVStg/