- Charlein Ho
- 2nd Year Medical Student, National University of Singapore
Insights from mindline’s Youth Engagement Sessions (And How You Can Join Us!)
I hadn’t felt this in a long time – a wave of connection and inspiration. Sitting in a room with many other youths who were passionate about mental health during a panel discussion hosted by mindline.sg, I could not help but feel stirred by their energy. As guest speakers from various mental health fields started sharing their experiences, I found myself further inspired by their insights and reflections.
My journey into mental health started in 2022, when I had to step up to be a caregiver for a period of time. There were many moments when I felt so alone. But eventually, I realised that perhaps this feeling of loneliness is universally experienced. The presence of other young individuals who were equally keen about mental health during the panel discussion affirmed that we are not alone, and there are many others who care and want to do more.
Through my caregiving experience, I learnt the value of nurturing both my mental health and that of others. This prompted me to explore platforms like mindline.sg, a free website that consolidates a variety of mental health resources for Singaporeans of all age groups. It also includes a peer support forum called let’s talk, which provides safe spaces for youths to receive advice from peers, trained peer supporters and professional therapists. I was intrigued by how mindline’s focus on digital mental health played a significant role in both advancing awareness and actionable steps to address key wellbeing challenges. This inspired me to join the mindline youth fellowship programme, where youths are empowered to co-create and spearhead mental health related initiatives. We collaborated with Brain Juice Collective last year to organise five engaging sessions to support youth learning. These sessions were among the most insightful and enjoyable events I’ve attended, and I’m eager to share what I’ve learned from each session:
Session 0: Kick-off
It was my first time meeting the youth fellows, and I did not know what to expect. But whatever expectations I had were tremendously surpassed. We were greeted with a hot towel, a tea bar and a mindline youth fellowship learning journal. To kick off the engagement sessions, the founder of “Jollity Bloom” recounted her entrepreneurial journey, highlighting her mission to spread joy through her crocheted crafts. To our surprise, we all had a crocheted badge under our seats, with our names crocheted on! It brought smiles to our faces.
Next, we were tasked to write down our connections, experiences and strengths onto cardboard that we would later fold into bricks. Our objective? To build a car structure using the bricks! It was the first time I had been so intentional with recognising the strengths of each person in the room, and the physical action of stacking the bricks together made it more meaningful. As we laid down the bricks on top of each other, it dawned on me:
Insight 1: When we build on our strengths, we become better and stronger.
It sounds like an obvious concept, but we are often fixated on our weaknesses and differences, leading to conflicts and frustrations . But when we channel our energy to our strengths, we empower each other. The kick-off session had me looking forward to what was to come.
Session 1: Digital Mental Health
The first session focuses on the exploration of opportunities for mental health within the digital space. This included a panel discussion where we invited Prof Daniel Fung of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) , Vrinda Khanna of Mages Studio, Theodoric Chew of Intellect and Janice Weng of the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT). Each speaker shared valuable insights on the transformative role of digital technologies on mental health solutions.
Reflecting on the future of mental health, Prof Fung envisions a landscape of:
“Psychiatry without psychiatrists, hospitals without beds, treatment without clinics, research without researchers.”
Prof Fung’s point on exploring care options beyond the confines of traditional clinical settings is reflected in certain initiatives implemented at IMH, where games have been used to aid the recovery of patients. This headset shown below is one example, it translates signals detected by the device into movements that advance the bird within the game.
My experience with this game and reflection on Prof Fung’s point led to this realisation:
Insight 2: Envisioning the future of mental health means to look beyond conventional boundaries.
After the panel discussion, we took part in a facilitated workshop where we got to create our own metaverse. We created our own avatar and were free to design our own metaverse using the spatial.io platform. We burst into laughter as my friends and I tried coordinating our character movements in metaverse, almost like hosting a Zumba session. (Having our own faces on the heads of the characters made it even more hilarious!) We were encouraged to imagine a world where the metaverse could be integrated into mental health. I marvelled at the accessibility of such technology, and who knows: perhaps youths like ourselves can create something valuable related to mental health in the metaverse!
Session 2: Creating offline mental health products
The second engagement session centered on the creation of mental health products for offline use.
Sherman from Happiness Initiative and Samantha from Cupplet’s Creative shared about their mental health products – card games and edible painting respectively. They gave insight into the collaborative process of product development, and I was inspired to hear how they transformed their visions into reality. When asked on their two cents about the underlying issues of mental health amongst youth, a quote by Martin Seligman was shared: Why is there so much depression today? It is because of “the waxing of the individual and the waning of the commons”. I thought: If that is true, then maybe technology can help youths understand and connect with the world beyond themselves.
The youths had a whale of time trying the card game and painting on the cookies with the edible paint.
Inspired by Sherman and his work at Happiness Initiative, the youths fellows in the Education and Research team completed the development of the mental health card game “mindline+” in the following weeks after the session!
Session 3: The Art of Digital Storytelling
At the third session, we had the opportunity to learn from Ron Yap @mentalhealthceo, Adeline Tay @adeltgf, and Nicholas @resiliencesg on how to craft compelling narratives related to mental health in the online space. They shared about how they used social media to shed light and break the stigma on mental health issues. Through a social media workshop led by Ron, youths gained practical skills on content creation and even created reels in under 20 minutes! Social media is unique this way – sometimes you don’t need a revolutionary idea, even a few seconds is good enough.
While I was amazed at the whirlwind of possibilities that digital storytelling presented, this particular insight that was shared stayed with me long after the session ended:
Insight 3: There seems to be fewer stories online focused on depicting one’s struggles, and more stories on how these struggles have been overcome
Reflecting on this, I found myself drawn to the candid accounts shared by the youths and speakers this session and the previous few. I could also feel myself opening up, and was moved to be authentic and honest in sharing my own struggles (but of course to a level I am comfortable with).
Session 4: Leadership in Mental Health Advocacy
For our last session, Senior Parlimentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam of the Ministry of Health David Chua from National Youth Council and Phua Chun Yat from Samaritans of Singapore shared about leadership in the advocacy space. Having a wealth of experience under their belts, the speakers offered profound perspectives and advice on advocacy, and what it means to be a good leader.
Phua Chun Yat summed up the qualities of a good leader: “What makes a good leader? To have thick skin, warm hearts and keen ears.”
As the 2023 youth fellowship comes to a close and we start planning for 2024, I look ahead with wonder and excitement. If you have read till here, we are looking for people just like you! We are opening up recruitment for youths who are keen to learn and make an impact in the mental health space.
As a youth fellow, you will:
- be part of engagement sessions to deepen your understanding about mental health
- be given opportunities to interact with different communities as well as like-minded peers
- receive guidance to co-create projects or initiatives aligned with mindline’s mission
The commitment period will be from April to December 2024, on a biweekly basis both online and offline.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who have made the 2023 fellowship possible. I am grateful for the faith and support that the mindline team has shown to youths like myself, and the people I have crossed paths with through the fellowship. It warms my heart to know that there are others who care and desire to do more for mental health. I think that is what makes each of us special as we advocate for mental health. We choose to not let our struggles defeat us, instead turning it into a source of strength to empower ourselves and others. That, alone, is enough to me.
If you are passionate about making an impact on mental health advocacy, join us at: https://for.sg/youth-fellowship-2024
Form closes on 15 March 2024.
To access mental health resources under mindline, kindly visit:
- mindline resources: mindline.sg
- let’s talk forum: https://letstalk.mindline.sg/
- let’s talk telegram channel: https://t.me/letstalkbymindline
Check out the people behind the 2023 Youth Fellowship on Humans of Mindline on Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/mindline.sg/