SINGAPORE — Today’s young people are more mentally unhealthy than their parents and grandparents, but it’s not because they are weak or soft, mental health experts said at a conference here on Wednesday (4 October). Stated.
Rather, experts say this is due to the increased uncertainty in the world young people have grown up in, with one of them saying that the surge in mental illness among young people is today’s most pressing public health crisis. He warned that it should be seen as a health threat. .
Experts speaking at the Singapore Mental Health Conference suggested that early intervention and the provision of mental health services for young people are essential to tackling the problem.
Professor Patrick McGorry from the University of Melbourne said mental health services needed to “build the bridge between childhood and adulthood” to help young people cope appropriately with the “chaos between adolescence and adulthood”. He said there is.
And when planning mental health services, “their needs should be considered from the beginning”, said Ms Janhavi Vaingankar, deputy director of research at the Singapore Institute of Mental Health (IMH).
These include creating more “fun” and casual spaces, such as using bean bags instead of chairs and allowing youth to choose who they want to share information with.
Associate Professor Swapna Verma, Chair of IMH’s Medical Committee, stressed that the best way to help young people’s mental health is to listen to their voices.
Young people are more depressed than ever
Professor McGorry said today’s young people were becoming more anxious and depressed because they had inherited a “raw deal” from previous generations.
He cited factors such as the impending climate crisis, rising housing and university tuition costs, the dangerous state of social media, and growing inequality, all of which are hitting young people hard.
“It’s not that they’re a soft generation. They were just like us when we were young. But the circumstances around them have changed completely. There’s no world war, to be sure. But there’s anxieties surrounding young people. This is unprecedented and has a huge impact on young people,” said Professor McGorry, who is also executive director of Origen, a not-for-profit research organization and platform for preventive clinical care for young people.
Additionally, he noted that youth mental health has long been a neglected area within psychiatry, as mental health services tend to focus on young children and adults.
Associate Professor Verma said that according to the 2016 Singapore Mental Health Survey, the 18 to 34-year-old age group in Singapore is more likely to suffer from mental health disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and alcoholism. It was pointed out that the morbidity rate was the highest.
The median age of onset of mental illness in Singapore was 22 years old in 2010, much later than the World Health Organization (WHO) figure of 15 years, but a second study in 2016 found that The age of onset was found to be younger at 21 years.
“This is probably the most important public health crisis,” Professor McGorry said.
“If you don’t get them back, you’re going to be left with a whole middle-aged population with chronic illness. How do you turn off that faucet? How do you turn off a group of people who struggle with mental illness their entire lives?” Is it possible to reduce it?”
Young people are the main stakeholders
Experts said young people’s needs and perspectives should be prioritized alongside expert opinion when designing the ideal mental health service.
“Many of them (young people) are worried that what they share during this session will be shared with their teachers and parents without their knowledge,” Janhavi said.
To create a safe shared space, youth can choose who they feel most comfortable sharing information with, whether it’s a trusted teacher or an adult, without having to explain their choices. Teachers, parents and school counselors can work together to help the young people they serve, but information should not be an “open book” among adults, Ms Janhavi says.
She said mental health services should also offer flexible working hours and night services with 24-hour care plans, as anxious young people tend to have problems at night when most mental health services are not available. He added that it should be established.
Meanwhile, Professor McGorry proposed the use of the medical concept of clinical staging, which is used to treat serious medical conditions such as cancer.
Based on this concept, each stage of mental illness can be correctly identified and appropriate treatment can be administered.
He cited Headspace, an Australian not-for-profit organization that supports young people’s mental health, as an example, where the first step is to strengthen young people with mild to moderate mental health conditions or early-stage disorders. It is a “stigma-free” entry into primary care.
For more severe conditions such as psychosis, borderline personality disorder, anorexia and complex mood disorders, patients will be offered a more specialized and sustained next level of care, Professor McGorry added.
Associate Professor Swapna said that in addition to creating accessibility and psychological safety, difficulty in obtaining consent was one of the barriers for young people to come forward.
“(Adolescents) still have difficulty accessing services without parental consent,” she says. “Stigma and lack of mental health literacy, especially for parents, appear to be barriers to accessing mental health services.”
That’s one reason why the Youth Mental Health Center of Excellence has launched a chat service, available from 9am to midnight, to help young people aged 16 to 30 with mental health issues access support. It’s one.
“We want to build scaffolding around them and train new workers and caregivers as well,” Associate Professor Swapna said.
She stressed the importance of awareness of mental health services, saying social media, student campaigns, talks and workshops held in schools can help raise awareness among young people.
“When building services for young people’s mental health, the key stakeholders are young people and their parents, and it is critical that we listen to their views.”
