Month: May 2023

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 1, 2023 /3BL Media/ – To help educators nationwide observe Mental Health Month, Discovery Education is presenting a curated collection of free standards-aligned resources empowering educators to support student mental health. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.

Established in 1949 by Mental Health America and observed each May, Mental Health Month raises awareness and educates the public about mental illnesses and strategies for attaining mental health and wellness. This year’s theme, “Look Around, Look Within,” encourages communities to explore and understand how factors like education and the environment impact mental health. In recognition of Mental Health Month and the 2023 theme, Discovery Education presents the following collection of resources in collaboration with partners:

Virtual Field Trip 
Grades 3-5

This virtual field trip from Soar with Wings – a program with Wings for Kids and the Allstate Foundation – introduces students to the key pillars of emotional intelligence. Accompanying educator guides, student activities, and family engagement materials help students apply mental wellness concepts in their daily lives.

Lesson Plan 
Grades 6-12

In this digital lesson plan featuring an educator guide and a video from a CVS pharmacist, students learn that mental health is a key component of overall health, review strategies to support their mental health, and explore the effects stress, anxiety, and depression can have on the brain and body. The lesson plan is part of CVS Health’s Pharmacists Teach program, Dose of Knowledge which offers a suite of no-cost digital content aligned to learning standards empowering K-12 grade students with the facts about substance misuse and how to make good decisions for the health and well-being of themselves and their community, while also connecting classrooms to pharmacists.

Career Profiles 
Grades 6-8

Better Health in Action – a program created in partnership with global biopharmaceutical company Takeda – empowers the next generation of health leaders to learn about the urgent widespread issue of health equity. The career profiles take students inside the lives of a diverse portfolio of biopharmaceutical professionals with career paths centered on STEM offering students opportunities to imagine their future and potential in the journey towards health equity. Accompanying videos available in nine languages analyze community inequities and empower students to take action toward improved health and education.

Professional Development 
Deepen educator support around mental health in a variety of learning environments with professional learning resources. A network of partners committed to bringing important mental health resources into core instruction, this coalition supports educators and students nationwide.

Create teaching strategies that incorporate support for students’ mental health with on-demand e-learning modules. Designed in collaboration with Ready, Set, RISE! – an educational initiative with Kaiser Permanente and an Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation) – these resources help create student-centered and trauma-informed learning environments.

Finally, with a Masterclass series from Amazing Me – a program with the Dove Self-Esteem Project – educators can gain the skills they can use to encourage kindness and open communication in their classrooms that reduces weight-based bullying and instilling body confidence. The series is hosted by Marisol Perez, a clinical psychologist and researcher at Arizona State University and The Institute for Research and Education Advancing Children’s Health (REACH).

These resources and more are available on Discovery Education’s K-12 learning platform and within the Wellness channel. The Wellness channel features content partners such as the Child Mind Institute and Everyday Speech. Explore four exciting new series including “MyYounger Self” and “Getting Better Together” from the Child Mind Institute, a children’s mental health nonprofit dedicated to stamping out stigma around mental illness and learning differences. The Everyday Speech collection showcases videos and activities that focus on topics like mindfulness, friendship, respect, decision-making, and empathy.

“It’s important we offer educators a wide range of free resources to support teaching and learning during, and beyond, Mental Health Month. These powerful digital materials are designed to promote student mental health in any learning setting,” said Amy Nakamoto, General Manager of Social Impact at Discovery Education.

For more information about Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources—which can be purchased with federal stimulus funds—and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through Twitter and LinkedIn.

###

About Discovery Education 
Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. Through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, and innovative classroom tools, Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences engaging all students and supporting higher academic achievement on a global scale. Discovery Education serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide, and its resources are accessed in over 100 countries and territories. Inspired by the global media company Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Discovery Education partners with districts, states, and trusted organizations to empower teachers with leading edtech solutions that support the success of all learners. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.

Contacts 
Grace Maliska 
Discovery Education 
gmaliska@discoveryed.com

by Matthew Trowbridge, MD, MPH

As a Doctor of Medicine by trade, I often think about how my work impacts others – specifically, how I can use my career to maximize impact on the health and well-being of people. Following this pursuit, I generally focus my efforts and attention outside the hospital; looking to impact upstream opportunities to address social and environmental determinants of health for my patients and community. The rationale and evidence are simple and quite strong for this – improving daily conditions of life prevents illness and supports overall well-being.

A similar rationale and evidence base underlies stakeholder capitalism – an economic and business approach rooted in theories originating in the 1970s from Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, and R. Ed Freeman, professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (my academic home). The core tenet of stakeholder capitalism is that the long term success of a business is intertwined with its stakeholders. Therefore, investments made to support the ‘daily conditions’ of its suppliers, the health and well-being of its employees and the communities in which a company resides always pays back in the long term. And vice versa. Freeman’s theory states that if a business treats its stakeholders–including employees–poorly, the business, too, will suffer. It’s a core business practice, which informs and supports environmental, social and governance (ESG) pillars by integrating specific principles, including health and well-being, into sustainable finance, resilience and corporate governance.

This spring, I moderated a panel discussion on Capitol Hill regarding the critical role health plays in supporting better performing organizations and a stronger economy. The event was led and hosted by two distinguished Congressional leaders, Reps. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), who founded the Stakeholder Capitalism Caucus in 2021. In addition to inspiring opening remarks from Representatives Phillips and Houlahan, as well as IWBI Founder Paul Scialla, we heard from an expert panel made up of Alison Omens, Chief Strategy Officer at JUST Capital; Kelly McCarthy, Head of Impact at Vistria Group; and Wendy Feldman Block, Executive Managing Director at Savills US.

From employee health to workplace strategies, the panel shared important points about how investors and corporations are taking steps to elevate human health, well-being and equity at the organizational scale:

“…Prioritizing worker health and improving a company’s bottom line are not mutually exclusive undertakings…When our workers’ health is prioritized, our families, companies and communities benefit.”
Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)

“My great grandfather used to tell me regularly that ‘business is a means to an end.’ And the end is not aggregating as much wealth as possible; rather, sharing as much as possible with those that make it happen and communities that provide that platform.”
Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN)

“When your employees are sick less, you do better. When they’re more loyal, you do better.”
Paul Scialla, Founder of IWBI, Founder and CEO of Delos

“If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s the outsized role human health plays in the success of our organizations and on our society as a whole.”
Kimberly Lewis Inkumsah, Executive Vice President, Equity, Engagement and Events, IWBI

“If there’s a pay equity gap… that’s an area of risk. Simply not knowing by not measuring doesn’t protect companies from that risk.”
Alison Omens, Chief Strategy Officer, JUST Capital

“Demonstrating that you care about employee health and safety will help get people back to the office.”
Wendy Feldman Block, Executive Managing Director, Savills North America

“…Looking at what is a good business and what is a good employer. And those things are fairly simple. Are you treated as a human when it comes to healthcare? Are you treated fairly when it comes to wages and equitable performance reviews?..You want to be cared about.”
Kelly McCarthy, Head of Impact, Vistria Group

Intentional support of health, well-being, equity and other social issues that are truly material in business at the federal level demonstrates the importance of this dialogue. It’s a priority that employees are increasingly voicing, too: a recent poll found that 95% of employees agree that a healthy workforce is essential to a company’s financial success.

Our time working with the Stakeholder Capitalism Caucus underscored the fact that investing in the health and well-being of people and communities–impacted by and contributing to private industry–is a long-standing practice based on old-fashioned economics.

This is particularly important to remember in a time when concepts such as “ESG” are becoming increasingly politicized. In the end, investing in people isn’t solely a good thing to do for the world, it’s simply good business.

View original content here.