I. General introduction
Beautiful Mind International (BMI) is a multicultural project co-sponsored by ERASMUS+ to improve mental health situation in society. To do so, we need to raise awareness, educate people and change attitudes about mental health issues.
WHO states that the most common diseases/restrictions among young people are caused by mental disorders (Kutcher & Venn, 2008). Failure to provide timely support leads to negative consequences (suicide, substance abuse or lower treatment effectiveness), which is also why prompt support is of high importance ( Linda & Ninez 2017). However, there are many challenges such as: 1) stigma on mental health topics and 2) a lack of understanding among young people in this area (Chadda, 2018).
If young people don’t know 1) what a mental problem is; 2) that it can be successfully treated, and 3) that it’s completely normal to have a mental problem – they don’t even seek support. These factors make the problem exacerbate.
- The project is intended to:
1) Raise mental health awareness, educate people and change attitudes towards mental health issues;
2) Improve the mental health situation in society;
3) Provide skills and tools for young people to take care of their mental health.
- Implementation period: 2021-2022
- Participating partners:
CSDS is honored to work with youth organizations from 4 countries: Lithuania, the Philippines, Taiwan and Nepal. They are Active Youth Association (AY), Bridging The Gaps Organization – BTG Inc., Vision Youth Action (VYA) and Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN). Participating partner countries provide comprehensive information about different parts of the world; thus ensuring geographical, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity.
II. Activities in the project:
The project’s goal-directed activities are diverse, including conducting research, building media campaigns and online platforms, organizing training courses and a series of events with youth in participating countries.
In particular, we will build an online platform – an “information bank” where people can easily find information related to a wide range of mental health topics and contacts of experts on mental health.