Over 98,000 young people and parents engaged by community mental health services as at March

SINGAPORE – Nineteen-year-old Navitha Rajendaran used to grapple with frequent mood swings, anxiety and poor concentration in school.

A friend who noticed her struggling referred her to a social service organisation for counselling services.

The sessions helped her learn better ways to manage stressful situations and her mood swings.

Ms Navitha is one of many young people and parents who have been supported by two community mental health services as at March 2024.

Eight Youth Community Outreach Teams, which run outreach activities to raise awareness of mental health issues and promote early identification, have engaged more than 98,000 young people and parents, while four Youth Integrated Teams, which provide mental health assessments and psychosocial interventions, have supported more than 4,500 of them.

These teams help young people aged 12 to 25 years old, and are fully funded by the Government without any out-of-pocket cost. Their activities are run by social service agencies such as Limitless, Care Corner Singapore and Touch Community Services.

The figures were disclosed on Sept 19 in a multi-ministry update on Singapore’s efforts to support the mental health of its youth, which has become an area of growing concern.

A

new nationwide study on the topic

by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) found that about one in three young people aged between 15 and 35 in Singapore reported experiencing severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress.

The first tranche of findings was released on Sept 19.

Among the youth who reported severe or extremely severe symptoms, about two in three sought help through informal or formal mental health support services.

The Health, Education, and Social and Family Development ministries said the study’s findings affirm the approach taken to tackle youth mental health in their

National Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy

that was launched in October 2023.

The strategy’s key thrust is to tackle the issue coherently and holistically, from both preventive and curative perspectives, through the community, schools and workplaces.

Many of the measures under the strategy are already in place, said the ministries, while others will be gradually rolled out over the next few years.

Enhancing community support is a key focus area of the strategy, they added.

Besides the Youth Community Outreach and Youth Integrated teams, young people aged 16 to 30 can also turn to Chat, a national youth mental health outreach and assessment service.

As at end-March, the service has helped more than 7,600 young people at risk of mental health conditions, and provided them with mental health assessments.

Chat also started an online messaging platform, called webChat, in 2017 to provide real-time counselling on mental health-related concerns. It has conducted about 3,100 webChat sessions up to the end of March.

Once a teen who struggled with mental health issues herself, 24-year-old Hasya Nazihah is now an ambassador for Chat, where she helps other young people.

Ms Hasya started experiencing distorted perceptions of her body when she entered secondary school in 2014, feeling like she looked different from other girls in her social circle.

Her eating habits changed significantly – there were days when she ate only a packet of biscuits.

By the time she was in Secondary 3, she had lost a noticeable amount of weight.

Constantly watching her weight took a toll on her mental health, and she developed symptoms of anxiety and depression.

After seeking help from a counsellor, she overcame her struggles by the time she was 21.

She became an ambassador for Chat as she wanted to prove to herself that her past struggles do not define or limit her future goals and personal potential.

She said: “Recognising that I lacked a safe space to share and connect with others while experiencing my own mental health struggles, I was motivated to create that safe and supportive environment for the youth going through mental health challenges as well.”