In this screen‑share walkthrough, Shawna Lynne (Delulu Today) navigates the Ontario Retired Teachers Benefits Plan’s mental‑health portal, Starling Minds, and provides a running critique. She highlights major usability and accessibility problems—no read‑aloud option, dense monochrome text, and poor visual design that strains the eyes. She points out that the intake questionnaire is narrowly framed, lacking trauma‑informed language, and forces users into binary or overly specific answer choices across domains such as stress, depression, anxiety, substance use, ADHD, eating disorders, and sleep. Shawna repeatedly calls the questions “ridiculous,” “narrow‑minded,” and “deterring,” especially the sections on drug use and ADHD, noting they do not reflect the lived realities of teachers. She also comments on the brief neuroplasticity educational segment, finding it under‑explained and lacking captions. Throughout, her tone is informal, conversational, and sharply critical, concluding that while the effort is commendable, the tool fails to be user‑friendly or trauma‑informed.
Chapters
Welcome to sharing. I'm going to share my screen today. I was on the Ontario Retired Teachers Benefits Plan, and this is mental health for members. Starling Minds. So I just started, and I decided that I will share it with you as we go through it. Let's see what this is about. Okay, so do stress five key areas. Okay, it didn't ask me if I had any background knowledge about mental health. Okay, next. Okay. Why did you decide to become an educator? Yes. Yes. Oh, okay. None of these bring me something else. Curiosity. Okay, so just letting you know, it's not accessible. There's nowhere for it to read out to me. So our teacher mental health site does not even have accessibility. It's way too many words. It's all one color. It is not good for your eyes. So far, a fail. Let's start with what brought you here today. What's currently going on? What is affecting your mental health? And then it gives you space to write. People don't want to write. Not the first question in. Fail. Let's see. Allow this time. There is nothing affecting my mental health at this moment. I'm just curious what this site looked like. I would like to know how it can support people so I can direct them here. Okay, it is not leaving any spaces behind. Let's go. It's not intuitive at all because now it's asking me about stress. What level? What's your level of stress? I don't know, regular. Life is full of decisions and decisions are stressful. Thinking about the decision you're making. Is it the right one? How do you know it's the right one? Trusting your intuition and going along. I wouldn't call it stress. I'd call it a demand on my shoulders that takes energy. Which of your life caused you the most stress? Um, over the last 2 weeks? Well, I've done so many things in the last 2 weeks, I can't answer one. Can I answer more than one? I would say other. That's it. Think your level of energy as a battery. How full is my battery? Mine is very full. When I commit to self-care and set the intention of taking care of myself daily and the accountability of movement, my cup is fuller than if I don't. It looks like you're currently managing your stress and energy levels well. Thanks. You're in a great position to learn new mental fitness skills so you can stay strong. Okay, let's move on to resilience. We have— let's go. I'm, I'm able to adapt to change. Truly, nearly all of the time. Yes. Tend to bounce back after illness or hardship. Truly, nearly all of the time. I'm not even gonna put a note. It's not even worth it because it doesn't give me a better answer. Over how often have you been bothered any of the following? Little interest or pleasure in doing things. Not at all. I'm not down, depressed, or hopeless. Nope. No, nope. I'm not eating, but only because I'm just not hungry.
Nope.
I don't watch it anyways. So no. No. I am totally moving around a lot more than normal when I'm doing it with intention. So these answers are way too narrow for me. Thoughts that you'd be better off dead or hurting yourself in some way. Wow. Not at all. Several days. More than half. Okay. What happens if I put nearly every day? No. Call the crisis line. ChatGPT does that. This is not good, not trauma-informed at all. Wow. You're doing an incredible job making time. Only a few more steps to go. This is really sad. It is deterring for people. Oh, what are we going to do? How often have you been bothered by any of the following problems? Feeling, um, nearly every day I'm nervous, anxious, or on edge. I'm building things and doing things and moving. I don't worry. Not being able to, not at all. I don't understand not being able to stop or control worry. Not at all. Nearly every day I'm not able. No, I'm not at all. I don't worry too much about different things. Trouble relaxing? Not at all. Not at all. That is not me. Something always happens. I'm not afraid of it. It's called courage. I never have trouble falling asleep. Okay, Mary, like 1 or 2 times a month. Let's be realistic. Do you have trouble going back to sleep? Never. I put on a meditation in a minute. I do not feel tired in the morning. I rarely feel tired or sleepy during the day. Then rarely, let's just say rarely. I would probably say none. How often does sleep interfere with your belly? No, I don't ever take naps during the day. I'd like to. No. Okay. You find yourself thinking about when you'll be able to. No, I don't, because I plan it in the evening.
No.
People really gonna tell the truth here? They don't know where it's going or who's reading it. Why would you tell the truth on your first intake? Do you feel that your need for drink or drugs is too strong to control? No. Oh, maybe once upon a time.
Wow.
Teachers cannot— Do you plan your days around getting and taking drink, taking drink or drugs? Teachers can't drink or do drugs. Like, honestly, do you drink or take drugs inappropriately in order to increase the effect it gives you? Never. You drink or take during morning, afternoon? These are ridiculous questions. Is getting effect more important than the drink or drug use? No. Do you want to take more drink or drugs when the effects start to wear off? Sometimes. I'm not even going to answer because these questions are ridiculous. They're so narrow-minded. There's so many ways to use drugs. And what drugs? And what drugs are they talking about? You're talking about ADHD meds? Because those are drugs. Those help you. These are terrible questions. Yeah. Do you find it difficult to cope with life without drugs? Yeah. ADHD meds? Yeah. Some people. Terrible questions. No panic in the past month. That's what you're asking me first? Do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a problem? Project. Yeah, always. Very often wrapping things up. How often do you have difficulty getting things in order when you have to do a task that requires organization? Well, with this ADHD, I would say very often. How often do you have problems? Very often. If I don't check my calendar every single hour and have somebody tell it to me, Time blindness. I get started on something. Yeah. When you have a task that requires a lot of thought, how often do you avoid or delay getting started? Sometimes. Sometimes I'm just not ready. How often do you fidget or squirm with your hands or feet when you have to sit down?
Always.
How often do you feel overly active and compelled to do things like you were driven by a motor? Well, always. And they say that that's healthy. Because I'm moving and doing and thinking and still relaxing. So once again, these questions are the ADHD scale. No joke. Think about your behavior. My stomach is too big. False. My body is just fine. True. False. False. I do not eat. Sometimes I make myself throw up to control my weight. Not anymore. I used to. Now I just don't eat that shit. Sometimes I stop eating for more than a day to control my weight. I want it— there's like not a true and a false. It's not that I can— I stop eating. I just watch what I eat more if my weight's gonna go up. We'll say true. I don't diet. I weigh myself every day. I love it. I'm attached to those numbers. First, are you retired? Well, no, not at all. Zero. No. Stress is not stopping me from anything. I'm gonna say prefer not to stand because it's not even mine. Get my results. What do you think it's gonna say? I'm healthy. This is not a diagnosis. Okay.
Well, isn't that a nice When practicing this warming technique, we will forcefully exhale out.
My diaphragm was squeezing in and up. I got this great fire breathing without— do you do breathwork? There's no questions here to see what someone does do. It's a terrible Terrible. I'm not sure. Okay, next. Getting started. Let's see what they tell us.
Every emotion, thought, or sensation we experience is produced by cells in our brains. These cells are called neurons. They connect to form vast networks, much like streets of a city. These connections are influenced by genetics, but constantly change with life experience.
You know we have AI now, right?
To adapt to these experiences. is called neuroplasticity. Over time, having the same or similar thoughts and reactions strengthens—
Vocab list on there. Captions would be good. There they are.
Major highways. The more often a particular network is activated, the stronger it becomes and the more likely it is to be activated again. This is why we often have similar reactions to the same situations. When stress is high, our thoughts are difficult, especially when they are well established. However, based on the principles of neuroplasticity— Okay.
I'm kind of done. This has been fun. Not really very good at measurement. It's a good try. Not so positive. Fail. But interesting to see that they're trying. Thank you. Stop sharing.
