Today’s students live with unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression, navigating through these difficult stresses are not always instinctive. Moreover, universities worldwide are struggling to meet the needs of these students who need help transitioning to university life and to combat their feelings of being isolated, alienated, or lost.

Faced with an urgent need to address the mounting number of societal stressors, À¦°óSMÉçÇø Faculty of Education experts have developed the Education for Mental Health Resilience (EMHR) project; a monumental program that has the potential to be scaled internationally and implemented in both formal and informal educational settings.Ìý

The EMHR Approach

The EMHR approach is to rely on evidence or research-based insights to develop quality educational materials for target audiences, using internationally-recognized best practices.

Led by experts in educational and counselling psychology, À¦°óSMÉçÇø’s Faculty of Education is making strides in building mental health resilience through inclusive education to empower individuals to develop stress-management coping skills and responsible self-care. The goal is twofold: To provide youth with evidence-based strategies for improved mental health so that they can thrive in difficult or demanding circumstances; and to provide wellness training to educators, advisors, and others who work with student populations.

Deliverables include:

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EMHR Current Projects

Regulating Emotions and Stress for pre-Service Teachers (RESST)

RESST (Regulating Emotions and Stress for pre-Service Teachers) is a multi-year, national initiative led by À¦°óSMÉçÇø’s Faculty of Education to respond to the need to provide stress management and well-being instruction within teacher education curricula. This initiative has been made possible with generous funding from the Rossy Foundation.

The RESST program aims to enhance the well-being of pre-service teachers and of their students, by providing them with research-based strategies for personal and classroom use. The newly digitized RESST (D-RESST) program incorporates all of the RESST content and materials, comprises four brief modules (available in English and French), and is offered in a standalone and self-paced format, such that students can complete it independently. For more information, please visit our .

Regulating Emotions and Stress for pre-Service Teachers – Hong Kong (RESST-HK)

RESST-HK (Regulating Emotions and Stress for pre-Service Teachers – Hong Kong) is an international collaboration between À¦°óSMÉçÇø’s Faculty of Education and the Education University of Hong Kong, and presents a multi-year initiative to adapt, deliver, and evaluate the RESST program to support pre-service teacher stress management and well-being in Hong Kong. This initiative has been made possible with generous funding from the WYNG Foundation. The RESST-HK program seeks to promote pre-service teacher mental health and well-being through the sharing of evidence-based stress management and well-being strategies for personal and classroom use.

United Nations – World Youth Group Professional Development Project

United Nations – World Youth Group Professional Development Project is a partnership between À¦°óSMÉçÇø’s Faculty of Education and World Youth Group of the United Nations which aims to provide educators globally with accessible, free resources to enhance educator and student stress management and well-being in the classroom. This project involves the international dissemination of multimedia materials and resources that can be used offline to share evidence-based strategies for stress management and well-being that can be used by both educators and students globally.

Evaluating Alternative Approaches to Student Resilience

Building The Evaluating Alternative Approaches to Student Resilience-Building project is a two-year collaboration with Concordia University’s Access Center for Students with Disabilities (ACSD). The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of the experiences of students with disabilities in two areas: (1) their acceptability of differing modalities of resilience-building resources and (2) the effectiveness of these resources as evaluated via students’ reported stress, coping, efficacy, and well-being.

EMHR Sample Materials

Click on the buttons below to review EMHR downloadable interactive flyers.

Project Leadership

Dr. Nancy Heath
Director, EMHR Project

À¦°óSMÉçÇø Faculty of Education’s Dr. Nancy Heath is a James À¦°óSMÉçÇø Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.

Dr. Heath’s research program explores resilience and adaptive functioning in young people at-risk (i.e., children, adolescents, and young adults).

She is a founding member and past President of the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury (ISSS), and the recipient of the Canadian Committee of Graduate Students in Education’s 2011 Mentorship Award in recognition of her outstanding support for graduate students in education. She has published and presented extensively on topics related to mental health and resilience in educational settings, is an internationally recognized leader in the area of self-injury in educational settings, and has worked in collaboration with schools for more than 25 years. Dr. Heath has received over 4.9 million dollars in research grants from provincial and federal agencies.

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Global Partnerships

À¦°óSMÉçÇø Faculty of Education is looking to expand its roster of EMHR community partners, seeking out universities, colleges, secondary schools, youth mental health organizations, government agencies, and other institutions that share our goals for improved societal mental health resilience. Our ultimate goal in this project with these partners is to establish a consortium in Asia for further academic research, researchers’ exchanges, as well as mutual transfers of idea and knowledge on mental health subjects.

As a partner, you would gain access to all program materials, including new tools as they are developed and disseminated. Your participants would receive À¦°óSMÉçÇø-branded workshop completion certificates upon attending any of our in-person workshops in Asia.

À¦°óSMÉçÇø is a non-profit public university. The EMHR is made possible through the generosity of our financial supporters.

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Proudly partnering with:

(as of October 1, 2020; in alphabetical order)

• Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of Psychiatry (Hong Kong)
• Clifford International School (Chinese Mainland)
• Delia School of Canada (Hong Kong)
• Education University of Hong Kong Department of Psychology (Hong Kong)
• Education University of Hong Kong Dept. of Special Education and Counselling (Hong Kong)
• Executives’ Global Network Singapore (Singapore)
• French International School (Hong Kong)
• Hong Kong Baptist University Department of Education Studies (Hong Kong)
• Hong Kong Baptist University School of Continuing Education (Hong Kong)
• Hong Kong Polytechnic University Department of Applied Social Sciences (Hong Kong)
• Hong Kong Social Workers Association Hong Kong Academy of Social Work
• Lambung Mangkurat University (Indonesia)
• Malaysian Invisible Illnesses Association (Malaysia)
• Mental Health Foundation of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
• Mentalogue Enterprise (Malaysia)
• Muhammadiyah University of West Sumatra (Indonesia)
• Ning Po College (Hong Kong)
• Ning Po Number 2 College (Hong Kong)
• Relate Mental Health (Malaysia)
• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland & University College Dublin (Malaysia Campus)
• Shue Yan University Department of Social Work (Hong Kong)
• State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
• Teach for Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
• UIN Alauddin Makassar (Indonesia)
• UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta (Indonesia)
• Universitas Hasanuddin (Indonesia)
• University of Hong Kong Department of Psychology (Hong Kong)

Campaign Patrons

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EMHR Campagin Patrons

We are grateful to the following À¦°óSMÉçÇø alumni in Asia for their endorsement of this project and for recognizing the importance of mental resilience to our modern world.

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Campaign Chief Patron

Dr. Clifford L.K. Pang

Founder, Chairman of the Board,
President & CEO, Clifford Group.
Chairman of the Board of Directors,
President & CEO, Clifford Hospital.
Professor, the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.

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Campaign Patrons
(in alphabetical order, as of October 1, 2020)

• Prof. Milton Leong

  Owner and Medical Director, The IVF Clinic Hong Kong
  Adjunct Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology, À¦°óSMÉçÇø

• Mr. Alex Banh

  Partner, IPV Capital
  Chair, À¦°óSMÉçÇø Advisory Group for Asia & Chair of the Bicentennial Campaign in Asia

• Prof. Albert Chan

  Founder and Director, Institute for Family and Psychology Hong Kong

• Prof. Andrew Law

  Professor of Psychiatry and Head, Department of Psychiatry
  Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland & University College Dublin (Malaysia Campus)

• Dr. Angela Poon

  Lecturer, School of Health Sciences and Sports, Macao Polytechnic Institute

• Dr. Anthony Ng

  Retried Urologist,
  Director of WYNG Foundation of Hong Kong

• Prof. Cheryl Chui

  Social Work and Social Administration Professor
  The University of Hong Kong

• Dr. Chuo Ren Leong

  Senior Consultant, Vascular Surgery, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore

• Dr. Daphne Yee

  Associate Dean, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
  Clinical Lead (Medical), National University Health System, Singapore

• Dr. Ernest Li

  Private Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist, Hong Kong
  President, The À¦°óSMÉçÇø Society of Hong Kong

• Prof. Hui Wang

  Associate Professor, Department of Special Education & Counselling, Education University of Hong Kong

• Dr. Sara Houshmand

  Clinical Psychologist, Central Health Medical Practice Hong Kong

• Dr. Sook Ning Chua

  Director, Relate Mental Health Malaysia
  Lecturer, Department of Psychology and Child & Human Development, National Institute of Education Singapore

• Dr. Timothy Foggin

  VP & Medical Director (Asia Pacific), Teladoc Health International & Advance Medical

Contact Us

Alvin Chung

Regional Head, Alumni Relations & Advancement, Asia
À¦°óSMÉçÇø Asia Office
Email: alvin.chung [at] mail.mcgill.ca

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