Mental Health Website Developed by Young People for Peers Launched

Date: 15th June 2016
Category: Mental health
Author: NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC)

A new website developed by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) has been launched specifically to promote mental health and wellbeing in young people.

An estimated 83 million people across Europe suffer from some form of mental health problem, often originating from experiences early in life. In response to this, the Aye Mind website was launched at the Golden Jubilee Conference Centre attended by the young people who led its development along with partners Snook, Young Scot, and the Mental Health Foundation.

Taking in a wide range of health, social care, education and voluntary sector organisations, the website evolved from an earlier programme, Project 99. Set up in 2014, Project 99 was awarded an EU grant of €150,000 to develop a website and online tools to offer positive mental health support for young people aged 13-21. Project 99 was one of five successful applications (from 106) from all over Europe to receive this money from the CHEST (Collective enHanced Environment for Social Tasks) project.

As the work got underway, Project 99 developed into Aye Mind, a name put forward by young mind to be used to support a range of youth-focused campaigns and dialogues as the work progresses.

The young people devised and developed a series of GIFs to feature on the website which highlight the issues the young people identified as the most important to tackle, including online bullying, social media addiction and the value of reaching out to friends in need.

The second aspect of the site is a resource toolkit for youth-related workers. This includes information on how they can better help young people with their mental health and wellbeing, signposting them to appropriate information.

Project lead, Dr Trevor Lakey, Health Improvement and Inequalities Manager with NHSGGC, said: "The internet and social media often generates negative coverage. However, Project 99 and its successor Aye Mind show there is significant potential for using digital resources to support young people's wellbeing. We like to see Aye Mind as almost a Tripadvisor service for the mind - it's a guide to the positive services out there."

"Young people have been actively involved throughout this development. It's important that the people Aye Mind was developed for not only feel that the website meets their needs, but also that they played a central role in its development throughout."

• Explore the Aye Mind website here.