While awareness of the importance of mental health has increased over the years, protecting mental health requires a collective effort, amplifying the need for increased social support during these difficult times. How Are You, Really? is a youth-centric health communication campaign aimed at empowering youths aged 19 to 24 with the ability to provide functional support to close others with depression. Depression is the most common mental health condition in Singapore, with 1 in 16 people having suffered from it once in their lifetime, and numbers set to rise in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recognising the importance of peer support in accelerating the recovery process for depression, the campaign sought to equip youths with the skills to provide functional support to their close others. It also sought to enable them to realise that having conversations about depression is within their abilities, in hopes of normalising such conversations in Singapore. The campaign employed a multi-pronged approach comprising a social media strategy, podcast series and an on-ground event, to enable youths to go beyond the superficial and reach deeper by being empowered to help close others with depression.
The campaign focused on equipping youths with the knowledge and skills to provide functional support, which is defined as the three types of support that the social network provides – emotional, informational and tangible support. Holistic knowledge of these support resources, which operate as stress buffers for persons with depression, will prepare youths to help close others mitigate the effects of depression. The structure of functional support also assists youths by providing a clear and definitive guideline on the steps they can take to help a close other exhibiting depressive symptoms.
The campaign team conducted a social experiment where they meet an old friend, who has symptoms of depression written all over his face and arm. Watch the video below.
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The Highlights
The team successfully enhanced the knowledge level of the campaign’s target audience on depression. The campaign redefined providing support for close others and introduced the topic of functional support which consists of emotional, informational and tangible support.
Production of Spotify podcasts and weekly Instagram posts.
The campaign offered weekly bite-sized informational posts on Instagram and educational podcast series on Spotify. Such podcasts, known as Pods for Support, featured various influencers such as Preetipls, Naomi Yeo and Nicole Choo discussing the issue of mental health, as well as tips from medical professionals. Empowered with this knowledge, youths were able to engage in deeper conversations with their close others about depression as a result.
Engaging on-ground events.
The campaign hosted the Conversation Café at Main Street Commissary, an immersion event where participants could speak candidly to their friends about mental health and the struggles they faced. This was also facilitated by the SmolTok card game offered to each group, as the game served as a way to have meaningful conversations. The event was positively received by the 101 attendees, with most of the participants indicating that they would recommend the event to their friends as a good way to normalise discussing mental health and inspire a deeper understanding of the topic.
The Memories
Reflection #1 – The Challenges
On-ground event had restrictions due to COVID-19.
Even though there was an equal distribution of efforts put into the different campaign strategies, the team felt they were unable to fully leverage the potential of the immersion event, Conversation Café. Due to COVID-19 restrictions and a lack of manpower, sign-ups for the Conversation Café were restricted to about 100 persons. As such, there was a lack of opportunity for those who were not part of the event to practice what they have learnt from our content, sequentially resulting in the inability to hit the campaign’s goal for the self-efficacy objective.
Limited time to promote campaign goals.
Additionally, the lack of existing conversation on depression and the support of those with it could also have impacted the ability of the campaign to enhance self-efficacy within the limited 13-week campaign period. As the campaign is a pioneering effort promoting functional support, more long-term efforts might be needed to further increase its target audience’s self-efficacy in adopting functional support for close others.
Reflection #2 – The Takeaways
The campaign successfully promoted the enhancement of knowledge about depression and functional support, which empowered more youths to engage in deeper conversations with close others about depression.
Reponses to the campaign was encouraging.
The campaign was also well-received by its audience on social media, particularly so on Instagram. Commendations from followers, mental health advocates, Conversation Café participants, and partners were extremely encouraging. In particular, the team received positive feedback regarding the informational posts and Pods for Support episodes, with several viewers and listeners coming forward privately and publicly to say that the content has helped them, lending credence to the success of the campaign.
Continuation of the campaign by community partner.
There has been discussion to continue the Conversation Café on an annual basis in collaboration with the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) due to high levels of public interest in the event. In addition, NCSS has also expressed interest for the Conversation Café to serve as the opening event for Beyond the Label Fest 2021.
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