Guidelines

Youth Mental Health Canada (YMHC)

Not Okay at School: Parent Peer Support Group

Group Guidelines

Welcome

Welcome to the YMHC Not Okay at School: Parent Peer Support Group. This is a private, supportive community for parents, caregivers, and families of children and youth experiencing school attendance challenges, school distress, school avoidance, or barriers to education and learning.

This group exists to provide connection, encouragement, and shared understanding through lived experience. We recognize that every family's journey is unique, and we are committed to creating a safe, respectful, and compassionate environment for everyone.

Our Community Values

At YMHC, we believe:

• Every child deserves to feel safe, welcomed, included, and supported at school.

• School attendance challenges are a sign that a student is struggling, not simply unwilling to attend.

• Families are experts on their own children and are valuable partners in finding solutions.

• Compassion, curiosity, and collaboration lead to better outcomes than blame or punishment.

• Lived experience has an important place alongside professional knowledge.

• Supporting student and family well-being is essential to improving school engagement.

This Is a Peer Support Community

This group is facilitated by Youth Mental Health Canada and moderated by individuals with lived and learned experience.

Our moderators and members are not providing medical, legal, psychological, or educational advice through this group.

Please participate as a parent, caregiver, or family member rather than in a professional role. While professionals are welcome if they are supporting their own child, this space is intended for peer support—not professional consultation.

If you have concerns about your child's health, safety, or educational needs, please seek guidance from qualified professionals.

Take Care of Yourself

Supporting a child experiencing school attendance challenges can be emotionally exhausting.

Please remember to:

• Take breaks from the group when needed.

• Protect your own mental health.

• Be patient with yourself.

• Recognize that every family is at a different stage of their journey.

• Offer support with kindness and understanding.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Privacy and Confidentiality

To help keep this community safe:

Please do not:

• Share photographs or videos of children.

• Share screenshots of private conversations or messages.

• Share confidential school correspondence without removing identifying information.

• Copy or repost content from this group outside of the community.

• Contact members privately unless they have clearly invited you to do so.

If you choose to share documents such as school reports, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), emails, or assessments, please remove all identifying information, including names of students, staff members, schools, school boards, and communities.

Keep Children Safe

YMHC does not support or allow posts that promote practices that may cause physical, emotional, or psychological harm to children or youth.

Posts encouraging harmful or punitive approaches—including intimidation, humiliation, coercion, threats, physical force, excessive punishment, isolation, or other unsafe practices—will be removed.

We encourage approaches that prioritize:

• Student well-being

• Emotional safety

• Collaborative problem-solving

• Relationship building

• Trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming practices

• Long-term engagement over short-term compliance

No Advertising or Self-Promotion

This group is intended for peer support.

Please do not:

• Advertise businesses or services.

• Promote products or programs.

• Recruit clients.

• Fundraise without administrator approval.

• Share promotional content unrelated to the purpose of this community.

Members are welcome to recommend resources that have personally helped their family by sharing their own experience.

For example:

• "What helped our family was..."

• "In our experience..."

• "One resource we found helpful was..."

When sharing articles, books, videos, podcasts, or websites, please include a brief explanation of why you found the resource valuable.

Respectful Communication

Everyone deserves to feel safe participating in this community.

Please:

• Speak respectfully to and about others.

• Assume positive intentions.

• Recognize that families may make different choices based on their circumstances.

• Avoid judgment, criticism, or personal attacks.

• Use inclusive and compassionate language.

Posts or comments containing harassment, discrimination, hate speech, bullying, or offensive language will be removed.

Protect Privacy

To reduce legal and privacy concerns, please do not identify:

• Schools

• School boards

• Teachers

• Principals

• Educational assistants

• Healthcare providers

• Other professionals

• Students or families

You are encouraged to describe your experience without including identifying details.

Trigger Warnings

Some discussions may involve difficult topics related to mental health, trauma, bullying, self-harm, grief, or other sensitive experiences.

When posting about potentially distressing subjects, please begin your post with Trigger Warning (TW) so members can make informed choices about whether and when to engage.

Please avoid posting graphic descriptions or distressing images.

Crisis Support

This Facebook group is not monitored as a crisis service.

If you or your child is experiencing an emergency or is at immediate risk of harm:

• Call 911 or your local emergency services.

• Go to your nearest emergency department.

If you are in Canada and need immediate mental health support, contact 988: Suicide Crisis Helpline by calling or texting 988, available 24 hours a day.

Thank You

Thank you for helping create a respectful, compassionate, and supportive community.

Together, we can reduce isolation, share hope, learn from one another, and support families navigating school attendance challenges.

Youth Mental Health Canada (YMHC)

Supporting student well-being, school belonging, and mental health through education, collaboration, and compassionate peer support.