Kayla Rosette & Maddison Harris

Mental Wellness Thompson Okanagan is a website developed by two third year practicum students in the Bachelor of Social Work at TRU. We identified a gap in resources and knowledge within mental wellness and worked to fill that gap by creating this one stop shop website. In this process we wanted to create our own animated videos to educate and engage users of all ages. We included topics of burnout, depression, anxiety, loneliness, stress, connection/disconnection, and self-care, the videos also included myths and tips for how to manage these issues from home. Under each of these topics, we have additional resources (YouTube videos, podcasts, TedTalks… etc.) as well to bring in different forms of learning and ways of explaining the concepts. 

The videos were our first main staple, for our second one we really wanted to bridge together information with local resources. Our focus was the entire region of the Thompson Okanagan, grouping the smaller areas that are in close proximity together in the hope that people from those smaller communities don’t have to visit multiple pages to find a resource. 

The reason why we are calling this a “one stop shop” is that people may watch the videos, look at the additional resources and then if they want or need to, they can look their community up in our drop down page, read about each resource (we included counselling offices, social work organizations and social services) in order to make an informed decision on where they’re connecting with, without having to do the full research process. 

We included two additional sections as well; mental health mobile apps and 24/7 helplines. The purpose of the app section was so people may access assistance without having to have a face to face or over the phone interaction. From personal experience, working directly with someone can cause more anxiety and we wanted to give our users as many options as possible to ensure they could feel safe while receiving assistance. The 24/7 helplines are non-emergency but provide users a chance to talk to someone if they feel uneasy or uncomfortable talking with a family member or friend. 

We encourage you to check our website out and hope you share it around!:)

Mentallwellnessthompsonokanagan.com