MOHW partners with NCU FM to bring Wellness Check-In to 6 Schools
May 6, 2025
KINGSTON, Jamaica. Monday, May 05, 2025: The Ministry of Health and Wellness has joined forces with NCU FM’s Acts of Kindness School Tour (AOK) to bring the #DoYourShare Mental Wellness Campaign into 6 schools, with Charlemont High in St. Catherine being the first beneficiary last Friday.
The Acts of Kindness campaign is geared towards highlighting how every good deed can have a mutually positive impact on the mental and social wellness of individuals.
Charlemont High School opened its doors in September 1978 and now serves a student population of 1,265.
The visit featured Psychiatrist with the St. Catherine Community Mental Health Services, Dr. Michelle Henry, who engaged students on their mental wellness while sharing with them some tools they can use to help to manage their emotions and how to treat those with special needs.
Those tools include the use of a stress ball as well as, importantly, finding a safe space as well as a safe person with whom to talk or to whom they can appeal for help. The institution also benefited from the donation of a Wellness Bench as a symbol for the promotion, creation and maintenance of safe spaces.
Dr. Henry also charged the students to make use of the Wellness Bench to connect with each other.
“It was a pleasure being in this space with you this morning and I hope this Wellness Bench will provide you with a means to reach out and bond with each other in the moments when things may not be going as well or you don’t feel as happy,” she said.
School principal, Ms. Rosalee Desouza expressed her gratitude for the intervention.
“I believe that interventions like these are key to the development of our future leaders, so we had to grasp this opportunity with both hands. We want to secure not only your educational well-being, but your mental, social, and emotional health and we hope this intervention today was able to push us in that direction,” the vice-principal told students.
The Wellness-Toolkit, meanwhile, was developed in collaboration with Senator Dr. Saphire Longmore, a consultant psychiatrist who has provided support to the national mental health programme. The toolkit is a four-part video series looking at the dimensions of health, notably the mental, the physical, the spiritual, and the social.
It features personalities and professionals such as clinical psychologist, Dr. Kai Morgan; award-winning chef and author, Noel Cunningham; development specialist, Carla Moore; and Pastor Christopher Morgan of Go for God Family Church. The videos provide viewers with insight into each dimension of health and expose them to tactics they can use to preserve their own wellness.
Other available mental health resources include 888-SAFE SPOT (888-723-3776); the U-Matter Chatline that can be accessed by texting the word SUPPORT to 876-838-4897; as well as the Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Helpline, 888-NEW-LIFE (888-639-5433).