Supporting kids’ mental and behavioral health has never been more important. Last year’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicated more than half of Wisconsin students report having anxiety and more than one-third were sad or hopeless every day. In Wisconsin, the percentage of teens who have consumed alcohol and have misused prescription medications in the last year exceeded the national average.
 
Talking to kids early about these difficult topics can help them become more informed and prepared to make healthy choices. Children’s Wisconsin has created innovative e-learning courses and resources that educators can access, free of charge, to deliver information students need to grow up safe and healthy.
 
Courses feature a combination of online and classroom activities. Healthy Minds for kindergarten through sixth grade focuses on mental and emotional health providing an engaging look at what makes a healthy mind while introducing healthy skills. Aligning with national and Wisconsin Health Education Standards, Healthy Minds addresses feelings and emotions, empathy and compassion, healthy relationships, common mental health issues and how to get help when needed. After engaging in course content, students demonstrate gains in knowledge, including how to show support for a friend or ways to ask an adult for help.
 
It’s UR Choice helps students in fourth through eighth grades make smart choices when faced with the pressures of using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and learn how to stay drug-free. Students learn age-appropriate facts about drugs and their effects on their bodies, how to analyze external and peer influences and how to cope in stressful situations. Students demonstrate gains in knowledge and attitude, including how tobacco affects the body or how substance use affects sports performance.
 
Children’s Wisconsin partners with more than a dozen school districts in the Fox Valley area to promote these opportunities among thousands of students.