Bellerose students will learn to WRAP up their troubles next week thanks to a pilot project run by the province.
Year two of the Alberta Wellness Recovery Action Plan project (WRAP) starts this Oct. 21 at Bellerose Composite High. The pilot project, which started in summer 2012, aims to teach students simple strategies to manage stress.
WRAP is an internationally recognized mental health program created by the U.S.-based Copeland Centre for Wellness and Recovery, said Krysta Wosnack, a counsellor at Bellerose. Last year, Bellerose, the Copeland Centre, Alberta Health and Wellness and Edmonton’s Louis St. Laurent Catholic School teamed up to test the program in local high schools.
“This is the first time around the world that it’s been brought to the high-school level,” Wosnack said, “so it’s a groundbreaking initiative.”
High-school students go through a lot of stress, Wosnack said, and it’s tough for them to know how to cope with it. “It’s hard for them to even recognize that they need a little support.” Untreated, that stress can lead to more serious problems such as depression.
WRAP is a student-led 18-hour course that emphasizes personal responsibility, self-advocacy, education and support, Wosnack said. “It’s all about knowing what they need every day to feel well and balanced.” It’s not counselling, she added, but it can help those who need formal counselling.
Andrew Kary, 17, went through WRAP last year and is back this year as a facilitator. “My parents went through a divorce two years ago,” he said, and WRAP has helped him deal with the results. “Although I’m going through a hard time in my life, I’m able to cope through it and focus on what makes me happy.”
Each two-hour session focuses on a specific topic, Kary said – early warning signs of stress, for example – and includes free food and games. “You’re dealing with people your own age,” he said, and focusing on positive steps to deal with stress.
The course teaches students to figure out what triggers stress in them, how to counter those triggers, and to create a daily plan of actions they should take to avoid stress (e.g. eating breakfast or talking with friends).
“For me, a trigger would be a bad driver,” Kary said as an example – a slowpoke doing 40 in a 60 zone, for example. Instead of cursing and flipping them the bird (which simply raises your stress), his plan tells him to turn up the radio and listen to some tunes. “Don’t let it get to you.”
About 72 students went through WRAP last year, Wosnack said, and surveys by Alberta Health Services suggest that the program has helped. About 90 per cent could recognize stress triggers and had a plan to deal with them after the course, she said, compared to 30 per cent before, while about 88 per cent had a support system in place to deal with stress, compared to about 33 per cent before the program.
Other studies suggest that WRAP creates greater empowerment and hope in people, and reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety. A 2011 study in the Schizophrenia Bulletin involving 519 Ohio residents with severe mental illness found that patients who went through WRAP emerged with less severe symptoms, greater hope and a better quality of life than those who did not.
Kary said he’s made a lot of friends through WRAP and has seen a more relaxed atmosphere at Bellerose because of it. “The drama has gone down.”
WRAP is something that everyone can use, Kary said, not just students. “It helps you manage your everyday life.”
The program is open to Bellerose students, Wosnack said, and she hoped to roll it out to other schools in the future. “It’s really about knowing yourself and knowing how to help yourself.”
Call Wosnack at 780-460-8490 for more on WRAP.
