Health Check Podcast

Building up your adulting skill for mental health

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Synopsis: Every first Wednesday of the month, The Straits Times helps you make sense of health matters that affect you.

We all know that adulting is not easy, but why is adulting hitting the mental health of young people so much these days? ST senior health correspondent Joyce Teo explores this with two guests in this episode. 

They are: 

Ms Lee Yi Ping, the programme lead and principal Case Manager at Chat, Centre of Excellence for Youth Mental Health in Singapore. This service by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) serves as a first-stop touchpoint for young people seeking mental health support. 

Programme lead for CHAT Lee Yi Ping (right) talking at the second installment of ST Podcasts Live.

PHOTO: JASPER YU

Mr Delane Lim, the founder and executive director of the charity Character & Leadership Academy, which runs youth development, mental wellness, and suicide prevention programmes for young people. Mr Lim himself contemplated suicide at 25 and he knows just how tough adulting can be.

Founder of Character & Leadership Academy Delane Lim (left) talking at the second installment of ST Podcasts Live.

PHOTO: JASPER YU

They discuss what one can do to manage the challenges that adulting brings, whether it is related to identity, work or relationships.

Ms Lee and Mr Lim also share their own experiences. 

This episode was recorded live - and filmed in front of a live audience - at The Projector at Golden Mile Tower, as part of the ST Podcast Live! Sessions celebrating 180 years of The Straits Times in 2025.

About 100 people attended the live broadcast at indie cinema The Projector at Golden Mile Tower.

PHOTO: JASPER YU

Highlights (click/tap above):

1:30 Is adulting harder today than it was in the past?

5:40 Managing the pressure of “having it all” by a certain age

10:50 Delane’s brush with suicide at 25

16:23 Yi Ping on feeling burnout

19:08 Navigating social media safely

22:15 Advice to their younger selves

Check out ST’s new series, No health without mental health:

https://str.sg/mentalhealthmatters

Read Joyce Teo’s stories:

https://str.sg/JbxN

Host: Joyce Teo (

joyceteo@sph.com.sg

)

Produced by: ST Podcast Team & ST Outreach & Engagement Team

Edited by: Amirul Karim

Executive producers: Ernest Luis & Lynda Hong

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