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Sometimes it’s just nice to take a break from your daily routine.

The Faculty of Education hosted a wellness day on Wednesday, April 20 at Duncan McArthur Hall, organized by its personal counsellor and Education Students’ Mental Health Initiative (ESMHI).

With a focus on mental wellness creativity and self-care, participants were able to take part in a number of activities including therapy dogs, yoga, massage, button making and Lego.

The ESMHI was created in 2015 by a group of graduate students, with the support of the Faculty of Education’s Personal Counsellor Sarah Horsford, who recognized a need to support mental health and wellbeing at West Campus. The existence of Ms. Horsford’s role has contributed to educating and changing the culture regarding mental health within the faculty, and the community as a whole.

A key part of her role, Ms. Horsford explains, is programming and throughout the year she and the ESMHI have hosted “uplifting” activities such as posting positive notes, cookie decorating, a mental health awareness day coinciding with Bell Let’s Talk Day and an information fair to highlight the range of support resources available at Queen’s.

Ms. Horsford also provides a series of workshops to the Bachelor of Education students that place a focus on self-care – a key element for their future careers as teachers.

“Self-care is actually something that is needed in order for us to have stamina in our careers, especially when we are helping others,” Ms Horsford explains. “So this type of day is an opportunity for everybody to practice what we’ve been talking about in the sessions all year long and it also helps bring the community together because everybody’s involved – a lot of staff are involved as well as community partners who have come in for the day.”