Problem Statement:

Mental health worries amongst students and young professionals

Target Group:

Students and young professionals

Proposed Solution:

A webinar with mental health professionals

Hub Activities:

Global Shapers co-organising a webinar with mental health professionals

Short & Long-Term Goals/Results:

Mental wellbeing support for students and young professionals

Available Metrics:

297 students and young professional attendees

Collaborators:

Advisory Singapore

Community Health Assessment Team, Institute of Mental Health

National Youth Council Singapore

Youth Corps Singapore

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SUMMARY

Paying homage to Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera - "Mental Wellbeing in the Time of COVID-19" was a joint effort by Advisory Singapore, Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), the Singapore Hub of the Global Shapers Community, National Youth Council Singapore, and Youth Corps Singapore. It was a webinar on mental health and wellbeing for students and young professionals, to ensure that youth had an avenue to seek advice and ask questions about coping with COVID-19's impact on mental health. 297 students and young professionals attended the session.

 

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 and the resultant circuit breaker measures in Singapore created an upheaval in the way we work, study, and communicate. While many tried to adapt to these changes, this prolonged isolation took a toll on mental health. We hoped to provide students and young professionals an avenue through which to engage with mental health practitioners on how to cope and what to expect in a post-circuit breaker world.

 

INVOLVEMENT OF GLOBAL SHAPERS AND YGLS

Advisory is co-founded and led by Global Shaper of the Singapore Hub Mock Yi Jun; its Board of Advisors is chaired by Young Global Leader from Singapore Aaron Maniam and includes members like YGL @Mohamed Faizal; and its community of pro bono working professional volunteers (known as the Advisory Professionals Network) is co-chaired by Curator of the Global Shapers Community Singapore Hub Timothy Low). This webinar was put together by Global Shapers Alin Dobrea, Khoo Yi Feng (who also moderated the panel) and Mock Yi Jun.

 

SPEAKERS

The session featured mental health professionals from CHAT (Youth Support Worker, Khoo Yi Feng), The Therapy Room (Director and Principal Registered Psychologist, Dr Geraldine Tan), Limitless (Founder and Executive Director Asher Low) and SHINE Children and Youth Services (Senior Social Worker, Irnina Wong).

 

FEEDBACK

From the 297 student and young professional attendees, we received 82 post-webinar feedback responses, with the average rating of responses (10 being the highest, and 1 being the lowest) to the following statements:

• 7.4 (I have come away with a clearer understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 situation on mental wellness in society)


• 7.2 (I have a better understanding now of the strategies I can employ to manage my wellbeing, and that of my friends and family, in this challenging period of time)


• 7.7 (How useful did you find the Mental Wellbeing Panel?)


• 7.5 (How useful did you find the Q&A?)

We anonymised the feedback collection process, to ensure we could receive honest and truthful responses, and were encouraged to receive statements from youth (which you could use!) who attended such as:

• "I really appreciate the genuine sharing by the speakers, how they started off with telling us more about themselves and how they dealt with COVID-19 allowed me to better connect with them, and especially the part on sharing about the things they were grateful for despite COVID-19 made me think on the bright side too. Really appreciate Yi Feng for being a great moderator, and how the speakers are trying very hard to answer all our questions to help as many as possible, thank you so much."


• "Nice to hear the speakers sharing, especially the personal sharing of themselves and how they themselves are also coping with their own challenges in these times. Makes us all feel "we are not alone"."


• "appreciate the work each of them do in the landscape... it's emotionally demanding work, especially more so in this period. It is heartening to see such work and spirit.