Take care of yourselves and each other
Become a part of the Young Minds Lab, register to the Advanced Design Thinking, the start of a collaboration with The Black Dog Institute.
October is Mental Health Awareness month! Hopefully, you are finding some time to engage in activities that created positive, enriching energy for yourself and those around you.
We know that it’s not always easy, especially during the past year where the world pandemic has limited travel, connections with family and friends and our general way of life. In a 2007 survey, 45% of Australian’s recognised they had experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life1. The Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study commissioned in 2019 by the National Government has placed mental health on equal footing with physical health recognising depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and psychosis as major health concerns facing Australians.
Did you know the onset of mental illness is typically around mid -to- late adolescence, with the government stating that half of mental health symptoms begin before 14 years of age?
More time, energy and money is needed to build solutions and earlier interventions to identify and assist in the prevention and support of mental health, particularly for our youth and we need your help.
The Black Dog Institute and UNSW Founders have partnered to bring you a range of problem solving workshops in the Young Minds Lab, an initiative to create technological solutions for young people to identify oncoming mental health illness and engage with strategies and support that will result in knowledge, understanding and hopefully avoidance of the mental health concern.
The project is seeking University students, interested in helping create, develop and deliver solutions that young people will continually engage with for a lifetime of improved mental wellness. Our first collaboration Advanced Design Thinking, to be held on Thursday, 22nd October, will see participants formulate new and innovative ideas with the support of Black Dog researchers to the hypothesis:
“Smartphones can improve youth mental health.”
How might we persuade people to share what is going on with their brain so we can learn enough to prevent mental illness?
How might we curate, customise and control privacy to look after and support people’s wellbeing as we collect data about their mental behaviour?
How might we use a smart device to help people explore their own brain and behavior through the data they collect?
Participants will then be invited to our following workshops focused on maintaining youth engagement with solutions and deeper understanding of functionality the solutions must include for successful mental health outcomes.
We hope the outcomes of this collaboration will see insights and solutions that could assist our participants, as well as the community, for a brighter, more fulfilling future.
If you would like to join us in creating a better future sign up to the Advanced Design Thinking workshop or contact Laura or Sofia to discuss.
From all of us here at Founders please take care of yourselves and each other.
1. 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing
2. health.gov.au Building a mentally and physically healthy Australia.