World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is observed every year on the 10th of October to take awareness of mental health issues into the community. The theme for 2018 was Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World[1].
Pathfinder Clinic WMHD2018 Event
On World Mental Health Day 2018 Pathfinder Clinic psychologists manned a desk for the day in the atrium at Magarpatta City, Pune. They used a short mental health quiz to pique the interest of anyone entering the shopping complex and rewarded all participants with an origami patronus! They were also administered a test of their current resilience. Our psychologists engaged in over-the-counter discussions on what constituted mental health issues. People brought out their own family and interpersonal problems, and to many it was an eye-opener that mental health issues could be contributory.
Why focus on young people?
Young people don't vote. They often don't have a voice and depend upon others to champion their right to health justice. The growing prevalence of youth mental health problems is a tsunami, and parents, the community and governments float in a small boat, named “denial”, on the quiet sea[2]. Most mood and anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia have their onset in this age group[3]. Investing in early intervention programs is not only beneficial for patients, but also cost-effective[4].
What is changing in the young persons world?
The increasing use of online technologies and growing connectivity to virtual networks through the day and night add to pressures faced by adolescents. It is unclear whether some of these changes affect normal aspects of human behavior and cause psychiatric disorders. At the other end of the spectrum are young people caught in humanitarian crises due to conflict and environmental disasters that can overwhelm the coping ability of the individual.
Building resilience in young people
Resilience in young people is determined by their personal and social resources. Engaging young persons in therapy builds resilience through processes of bouncing back and personal growth[5]. Resilience is also built through the process of enhancing immunity to stress by 'innoculation', especially if the prior stress occurs early in life, is mild in its magnitude, and is controllable by the individual[6].
References
- WHO. World Mental Health Day 2018. Accessed 2018-11-03
- Helen Christensen, 1 Charles F. Reynolds, 3rd, 2 and Pim Cuijpers. Protecting youth mental health, protecting our future. World Psychiatry. 2017 Oct; 16(3): 327–328. Published online 2017 Sep 21. doi: [10.1002/wps.20437]. Accessed 2018-11-03
- Cornelius LR, van der Klink JJ, de Boer MR, Brouwer S, Groothoff JW. High prevalence of early onset mental disorders among long-term disability claimants. Disabil Rehabil. 2016;38(6):520-7. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2015.1046566. Epub 2015 May 14. Accessed 2018-11-05
- Celso Arango. First-Episode Psychosis Research: Time to Move Forward (by Looking Backwards). Schizophr Bull. 2015 Nov; 41(6): 1205–1206. Published online 2015 Sep 20. doi: [10.1093/schbul/sbv126]. Accessed 2018-11-05
- Ayed N, Toner S, Priebe S. Psychol Psychother. Conceptualizing resilience in adult mental health literature: A systematic reviewand narrative synthesis. 2018 Jun 11. doi: 10.1111/papt.12185. [Epub ahead of print]. Accessed 2018-11-16.
- Ashokan A, Sivasubramanian M, Mitra R. Seeding Stress Resilience through Inoculation. Neural Plast. 2016;2016:4928081. doi: 10.1155/2016/4928081. Epub 2016 Jan 5. Accessed 2018-11-16.
