LDSB Mental Health, Substance Use, and Addiction Strategy
The Mental Health, Substance Use, and Addiction Strategy is the result of an extensive consultation process. In addition to the Strategy, the board develops an annual Mental Health, Substance Use, and Addiction Action Plan, which outlines Limestone’s mental health and substance use initiatives for the year.
How does LDSB support student mental health, substance use, and addiction concerns?
School boards offer different levels of mental health, substance use, and addictions care based on student need. Board staff and community partners offer three tiers (levels) of care:
- Tier 1: Mental health promotion for all students
- Tier 2: Prevention and short service for individual students at school, and
- Tier 3: Specialized services supports and therapy for students at school and in the community.
Mental health promotion for all students
Mental health promotion means teaching students about mental health and substance use, how to ask for help, and how to build habits that support good mental health throughout our lives. Here are some examples of mental health promotion activities you can find in the 2025-2026 Action Plan:
- Youth Symposium: Secondary students attended a day-long symposium focused on building mental health literacy and leadership opportunities in their schools. Students learned about mental health promotion and spent time planning student led mental health activities for the year ahead.
- Mental health literacy modules: Students in Grades 6, 7, 8, and 10 learn practical mental health skills like stress management and peer helping in teacher-led mental health literacy modules that have been added to the provincial curriculum.
- Southeast Public Health has nurses who visit and support all Limestone schools. Southeast Public Health staff may come into classrooms to give presentations on safety, nutrition, healthy relationships, and mental health.
- Early screening for students 6 and under: LDSB is piloting the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to support mental health and development in the early years (at select sites).
- Resources for families: 30 family health teams (FHTs) across the LDSB have received information about By Your Side, a resource hub made with the help of caregivers and school mental health professionals. This hub has practical tools, videos, info sheets, and webinars on managing anxiety, understanding mental health, substance use prevention, navigating digital technology, and more.
- Device use: Healthier technology use - especially with smartphones - is an important way to support students’ mental health and well-being. LDSB will deliver Balanced Device Use programming to Grade 7 and 8 students (at select sites).
Prevention and brief services for individual students at school
Students can get short-term individual support at school from trained LDSB staff and community partners. These include:
- Student Support Counsellors
- Adolescent Care Workers
- Clinical Consultants
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
Secondary students can access the school Adolescent Care Worker or Social Worker using a confidential form. They can fill out the form by scanning a QR code or going to their school website. Student Support Counsellors offer individual, small group and whole classroom programming to elementary students. We continue to work with Youth Diversion and Kairos to help students get substance use support. Visit limestone.on.ca/student_mental_health to learn more about which services are available to students.
Community partnerships strengthen support services
PreVenture is an evidence-based prevention program that uses brief, personality-focused workshops to promote mental health and delay substance use among youth. In collaboration with Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO), LDSB will deliver PreVenture to grade 8 students (at select sites).
LDSB is working on a new project with Kingston Community Health Centres (KCHC) called the Collaborative Care Initiative. This 3-year initiative will support students ages 6 to 12 and their families to have better connections between their healthcare providers and schools - leading to better outcomes - and a sense of connection to community.
LDSB also has processes that connect students with mental health care services outside of school. Some of our community partners include:
- Maltby Centre
- Ontario Health at Home
- Kingston Health Sciences Centre (Hotel Dieu and Kingston General Hospital)
Why does the LDSB provide care that recognizes and respects students’ identities? Because Limestone students are diverse:
- One in seven students report a disability.
- Students practice more than 20 different religions and belief systems.
- Students who identify as First Nations, Metis, and/or Inuit come from 61 different nations, territories, regions or communities from across Turtle Island.
- One in five students selected a racialized identity on the Student Census survey.
- There are students who identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+ in every school in Limestone.
- Limestone students speak 74 languages and identify with 215 different ethnicities and cultures.
Student Census 2020 data shows that Limestone students hold diverse, intersecting identities. Student Census data also shows that marginalized students are more likely to have negative experiences at school. Knowing this, and knowing that school environment can affect student mental health, we have made identity-affirming care a key area of focus of our strategy.
To support identity-affirming student mental health, Limestone is:
- Supporting system leaders to understand the relationship between identity and mental health through professional development.
- Using data to understand the unique needs of specific groups.
- Teaching students in class about preventing identity-based bullying and harassment and how to have healthy relationships.
How does the LDSB support staff learning about mental health, substance use, and additions?
It is important to make sure that staff have the tools they need to create welcoming schools and to recognize and respond to student mental health concerns when they arise. We build on staff training each year to reach as many staff as possible. Below are some examples of the professional development for staff at each tier of support:
- Most staff learn about mental health promotion for all students (Tier 1).
- Administrators and senior staff engaged in mental health literacy learning in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. This year, we offered a specialized Mental Health Literacy course to Lead Guidance Teachers.
- LDSB continues to train school staff and support staff in suicide prevention and life promotion through two training workshops (Prepare, Prevent, Respond and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training).
- All LDSB staff review the suicide response protocol as part of their mandatory health and safety training each year.
- Educators continue to be trained to recognize signs of mental health concerns and facilitate access to care for students.
- Principals are taking part in learning experiences that build their capacity to support the well-being of students and staff impacted by trauma.
Mental health support staff learn about providing specific support based on their role (Tier 2).
Student Support Counsellors, Adolescent Care Workers, Clinical Consultants, Social Workers and Psychologists learn about different interventions and strategies to provide the most appropriate support for students.
Some examples are BRISC (Brief Intervention for School Clinicians), DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) Skills in Schools, CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), and SNAP (Stop Now and Plan).