In Mongolia, in the last 10 years alone, mental health related disorders like alcoholism increased 25 times, anxiety 8 times, depression 7 times nationwide. There is only one mental hospital (National Center for Mental Health) in the country for a total of 17.7 beds per 100,000 populations (total of 550 beds). Five percent (25) of these beds in the mental hospital are reserved for children and adolescents. Therefore, advocating mental health throughout public on social media using educational & most-up-do-date contents, whilst increasing the availability of psychiatrists among most vulnerable areas would help thousands of individuals who are suffering from mental health disorders and can’t afford treatment. 

 

TARGET GROUP:   Every age group

 

PROPOSED SOLUTION: Advocate mental health through social media and increase the availability of professional care among vulnerable populations 

 

In order to educate the public about mental health issues from all its aspects, we opened an account on Instagram under the name of “Bi ba Bodol”, which means Me and My Mind in Mongolian. On a daily basis, we provide most-up-to-date, evidence-based contents on mental health disorders, whilst providing statistics, take-away messages and quizzes on mental health. As soon as we reach a decent amount of followers, which is increasing very well on a daily basis, we’ll invite professionals from different sectors of mental health to give interview and provide mental health advices to varying target groups.

Under the scope of our “Me and My Mind” Project, we collaborated with Magic Land-2, a newly built community center located in considerably vulnerable area in Uliastai district to provide professional mental health care among visitors from all age groups and 90 kindergarten children who study at the community center on a daily basis. Our psychiatrist provides one-on-one therapy sessions to these 90 kindergarten children and gives group therapy as it’s included in their curriculum. Also, the psychiatrist provides same service to visitors at the community center as around 150 people visits community center each day. We aim to extend the scope of our project by conducting Mental Health Fellowship Program to identify talented pool of young psychologists in Mongolia to link and pair with governmental and non-governmental mental health organizations in a carefully tailored mental health comprehensive curriculum to foster and prepare the next generation of professionals byintegrating biological, psychological, social methods to enhance Mongolian mental health scene. We will organize a public campaign #NoDiscrimination2025 in order to increase the involvement of all people on social media to remind them they’re all part of the change.

 

SHORT-TERM GOALS/ RESULTS: 1) To educate as many as people on mental health through our Instagram account (Bi ba Bodol). 2)Provide professional mental health sessions to people in need at the Magic Land-2, a community center in Uliastai district. 3)Foster a new generation of mental health specialists through mentorship, training and internship. Fellows will have developed specialization in areas such as physiotherapy, art therapy, music therapy, group therapy, play therapy and emotion focused therapy, etc. 

 

LONG-TERM CHANGE: People from all age groups will have a decent knowledge about mental health and ones in need will have provided professional care they needed as they’ll be able to reach their potential without any mental health disorders holding them back. Most importantly, last stage of our project, a public campaign, movement under the name of #NoDiscrimination2025 will engage thousands of individuals who will advocate mental health, and act and behave in a way to build a healthier and more accepting community. 

 

AVAILABLE METRICS: Instagram account “Bi ba Bodol” reached 650 followers in a month.

Psychiatrist we provided to the Magic Land-2, a community center, has provided one-on-one and group therapy sessions to 90 vulnerable children in the kindergarten and also provided one-on-one sessions to everyone in need among visitors from all age groups. There are about 150 visitors each day at the community center. 

12 shapers from the working group are actively engaged on a daily basis, and the whole Hub members support all community-based sessions and meetings.

COLLABORATORS: Magic Land-2 community center.