The final weeks of a school year can feel relentless, but for many teenagers, the mental pressure goes beyond cramming for finals.
A mental health resource fair at Lloydminster Comprehensive High School this month gave students a chance to connect with local organizations offering support, resources, and in at least one case, a small but intentional reminder to just breathe.
Bailey Hewlett, a mental health promoter with the school, said the goal was straightforward: make sure students know help exists.
“There’s so much in Lloydminster that they can reach out to, but it’s one of those things you don’t really always know about the different organizations,” Hewlett said. “That’s kind of why we have this here today, to tell our students what there is out there for them.”
The Lloydminster Region Health Foundation showed up with stickers carrying a simple message: breathe in, breathe out.
It was intentional, said CEO Kagan Kneen.
“We want to give back to different mental health initiatives in our community,” Kneen said. “We wanted to provide something that’ll help reduce some of the additional anxieties they have, something small to give back to the students.”
The foundation also used the event to highlight lloydminstermentalhealth.ca, a local directory connecting residents with counselling contacts and rapid-access mental health resources.
Hewlett said the biology behind teenage stress is real, and often misunderstood by the adults around them.
“The prefrontal cortex doesn’t develop until you’re 25,” she said. “That means they might struggle with making decisions, acting on impulses, or planning and organizing, which is a big one coming around finals and studying.”
She said parents and employers dealing with teens over the next six weeks should expect some friction – and meet it with patience rather than frustration.
“They might be a little more agitated and irritable as they are under stress and might not know how to cope with it as well as an adult does,” Hewlett said. “Working with them through coping strategies, making sure they get proper sleep, proper nutrition, still focusing on exercise, can make a real difference.”
She said this time of year has one advantage over the dead of winter: sunlight.
“It’s good this time of year because of sunlight, going outside,” she said. “It’s a little bit better when it’s sunshine out.”
Hewlett has been going directly into classrooms throughout May and June, presenting tips on how to write tests and prepare mentally before exams. She said teachers are also doing their part, offering study periods and making themselves available at lunch and before school.
Her message to everyone supporting a teenager right now is the same one she keeps coming back to.
“It is okay to not be okay,” Hewlett said. “Giving them grace and just helping them through it.”
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