Charity aims to make mental healthcare more accessible to children, youth

SINGAPORE - With the number of suicide cases among youth in Singapore hitting a record high in 2021, a new charity seeks to make mental healthcare more accessible to them and provide crisis intervention in times of need.

Ms Nicole Pang, 25, was sparked into action when a social worker told her about his experience with children as young as 10 experiencing suicidal ideation, and youth having access to drugs or experiencing extreme social reclusion.

She and some friends piloted Project Cope and crisis response initiative Imna - short for "I'M Not Alone" - under charity Impart in 2020. Since its launch, more than 150 children and youth have been served across its mental health programmes.

Ms Pang, head of the mental healthcare arm at Impart, said there has been an increase in the number of cases over the years, and its waiting list has risen significantly over the last few months.

She added that the charity, which has more than 250 volunteers across all its operations, has seen more cases related to suicide, self-harm-related struggles and extreme social reclusion.

The number of suicides among young people aged 10 to 29 in Singapore hit a record 112 in 2021, up by 11 from the year before.

The Samaritans of Singapore told The Straits Times in July that its crisis hotline logged a 127 per cent spike in calls from those aged 10 to 19 from 2020 to 2021.

Under Imna, volunteers build relationships with the youth, and act as a first line of response when they feel troubled.

Ms Pang said the children or youth feel psychologically safer to reach out to volunteers directly for support once they have established a positive relationship.

If a person expresses an urge to self-harm, the team will find out key details to assess the situation - like location, intensity of emotions and whether he or she is alone.

A staff member, called a youth advocate, will try to intervene through calls or text messages but will send a member of the crisis team to the location to help the person if this is ineffective.

Once the latter is safe, caregivers, such as parents, are briefed on what to look out for and the team will check in with the person the next day.

But if safety cannot be attained or if the person is uncontactable during the initial intervention, the team will make the decision to break confidentiality and call an ambulance, or inform the police, for example.

Youth advocate Mohammed Narish Mohamed Noh, 22, was inspired to join the sector after getting tutoring help from the charity while completing his N levels as a private candidate.

"It was interesting to see how case workers engaged the beneficiaries - even the most difficult cases where they are unresponsive or run away, and how (the workers) managed to move them into a space where they are open to interventions and are motivated to do better for themselves," he said.

Not a stranger to his own mental health struggles in the past, Mr Narish feels strongly about supporting children in learning about emotional health.

The job is filled with ups and downs though. There is joy when a breakthrough is achieved, but devastation when there are relapses or if the beneficiary engages in unhelpful behaviour.

"At the end of the day, I have learnt that progress is not linear and that both ups and downs are part of the process," he said.

Ms Pang said while Singapore has become increasingly open in talking about mental health, translating insights and ideas into action will take time.

She added that while a lot of focus is placed on secondary or tertiary levels of mental healthcare, such as clinical psychologists or inpatient care, more needs to be done for primary mental healthcare, like peer supporters and community workers.

She said many of the struggles faced by youth in the community can be managed at the primary care level by groups like Impart, but they are often quickly referred to other care levels and encounter clinicians who are burnt-out due to the overload.

"As a result, clients experience long waiting times and are often even rejected by services because they do not meet certain thresholds.

"We can serve a wider range of the population if we are able to further tier mental healthcare, while still ensuring that there is some level of standardisation in our quality of care and delivery of interventions."