New Report highlighting children and young people’s experiences of mental health

Date: 25th April 2023
Category: Mental health
Author: see me

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This latest report examines children and young people’s experiences of mental health stigma and discrimination. It focuses on the interactions between young people and adults, particularly parents and carers, teachers and health care professionals.

FeelsFM is a campaign created by See Me alongside young people across Scotland to find out about the struggles of talking about mental health. The creative platform asks questions and generates suggested song playlists based off the user’s selected emoji that best reflects how they feel in that moment. The platform encourages discussion around mental health in a fun way and has been used by schools as an activity to start conversations amongst students in class. Through a review of the data collected throughout the campaign, See Me found that the major barriers that young people face when opening up about their mental health is the stigma surrounding mental health, the need for a safe environment where they can be fully honest and a having a person they fully trust and feel like they can open up to.

After some research, See Me decided to update the FeelsFM platform and decided to focus on the issue of stigma and discrimination through displaying questions like; “if a young person is struggling with their feelings, how can people like doctors and teachers show they are taking them seriously?”. The answers to these questions can be viewed in the report which concludes with recommendations for adults and professionals working with children among others, based on these answers from children and young people.

• Check out the report here.
• Find more about the FeelsFM campaign here, including the interactive platform.