Let’s promote positive mental health!
On the 10th of October, World Mental Health Day, our board member Sara Þöll Finnbogadóttir represented school students on a panel focusing on promoting positive mental health for the next generation. The event was hosted by MEP Julie Ward, a member of the Mental Health Europe’s Coalition for Mental Health and Welll-being in the European Parliament, Brussels.
MEP Julie Ward opened the event by highlighting how important it is for the European Union and Member states to have good policies that aim to promote positive mental health and how Brexit has affected and created uncertainties in people’s everyday lives.
Patricia Reilly from the European Commission (EC Deputy Head of Cabinet – Education, Culture, Youth and Sport), spoke about the actions of the European Commission related to young people’s mental health and how important it is to further invest in mental health on a local, regional, national and European level.
Natalie Schürmann, Badiliko, spoke about how this generation is different from former generations, and how we can identify mentally resilient generations and the importance of mental health from a practitioner’s perspective.
Jan Bernsden, president of MHE, chaired the panel discussion where Sara Þöll Finnbogadóttir (OBESSU), Zuzana Vaneckova (European Youth Forum), Peter McManus (European Youth Parliament), were panelists representing youth organisations.
Zuzana and Peter remarked how the diverse needs of young people demand strengthened cross-sectoral cooperation.
Sara Þöll said: ‘’ With a changing world, the pressure to succeed and stand out increases. Around 66,7% of those who answered our mental health survey say that the school environment is highly stressful for studentst. This stressful environment often has a negative effect on students and reduces their potential to fully exercise their right to education.’’
Sara mentioned that not having proper access to services, e.g. professional help, and not having access to the right information can often lead to young people not knowing how to tackle their mental health and that may result in self diagnosis. Around 66% of those who answered OBESSU’s mental health survey say that mental health education is not a part of the national curricula.
OBESSU believes that having high-quality and accessible mental health care that is both supportive and preventive in schools, as well as high-quality mental health education will tackle these big issues, that not only young people face but we as a society.
OBESSU recognises the importance of improving young people’s mental health but it is important to improve young people’s mental health WITH young people, involving them in decision making processes is important. Young people are the experts when it comes to identifying their needs and nothing should be done about them without them!
Want to know more about what OBESSU is doing related to young people’s mental health?
Follow our mental health campaign #MindOurEducation on our social media platforms!
