Monique Takes the Helm in Wellness

A Bold New Initiative at School

18-year-old Ballajura Girl Guide, Monique Santovito, recently achieved her Queen’s Guide Award with a Social Awareness Focus and Interest in drama. Her Focus enabled her to share her passion for mental health with her peers in an interactive way, and included developing and leading a wellness team at her school to run whole-school events around mental health awareness. In 2018 Monique used a slideshow to present the idea of having an RUOK? Day event at her school, attending meetings with several teachers and the school’s Leadership Committee. When Monique’s ideas were approved, she met with school counsellors to put the plan into action. She developed posters explaining the RUOK? steps and held a stall at lunch break with pamphlets for students to take. After this first event, Monique collaborated with 2019 Head Girl Dana London, who shared her interest in spreading awareness and helping people with mental health issues. They talked about creating a Wellness Team. That year, Monique and Dana were asked to run an event for Anti-Bullying Day. They organised a photobooth for students to take photos with anti-bullying slogans. They also ran an activity where students cut out cardboard hands and wrote a quote, mantra or slogan that promoted action against bullying. Monique and Dana displayed the hands on a wall for everyone to see. Monique and Dana developed a presentation for the leadership committee to explain what a Wellness Team could do, what events they would run and their goals. Monique says, “Lots of what I had to do – meeting new people, doing speeches and presentations in front of so many teachers and students – made me nervous and scared of what the outcome might be.” But when she reflects on the skills she learned as a young Girl Guide, Monique believes that she was empowered to be confident and resilient during the process. The initiative was approved! Monique and Dana opened it up for new members and had far more applicants than expected. Monique and Dana selected 15 people with a passion for mental health and helping others, and together they formed the first ever Wellness Team! The Wellness Team runs the events already mentioned as well as Wellness Week, focusing on self-care and a healthy mindset. This popular event has included badminton matches, a photobooth, a mental health quiz, live music performances, a teddy bear pit, and games of giant Jenga and Connect-4.

Monique became the leader of the Wellness Team in 2020. The pandemic made it hard to run events or activities, but the team worked really hard to continue to promote mental health awareness, especially during such an intense and stressful time for everyone. Monique selected another student to mentor throughout the year who would take over as a Wellness Team Leader when she graduated in 2020. Monique also believes that her Unit supported her to implement her Wellness Team strategies. “I think without even realising that they were, my Unit and Leader really helped... At our Unit meetings they would ask me how it was going and listen when I found things challenging or frustrating, when I was struggling, and providing ideas when I was stuck on where to go next.” She brought her passion for mental health to her Guide Unit too, running a wide game based on RUOK? Day. The game helped Girl Guides understand self-care, RUOK? Day and how we to check in on friends and family to provide help and support. “It makes me feel so proud to think that I was a part of [the Wellness Team] and I helped to create it. I know the team is continuing on without me being there to push it along, which makes me really happy – to think that there are others who care and will continue to provide support and awareness.”