Team Star – Lisneal College

Why as a team did you choose to focus on this challenge?

Our team has chosen mental health as our challenge. We chose this as mental health is a problem a lot of people have to face, mostly teenagers. Mental health is something everybody has whether they have a good or bad kind. Bad mental health includes problems like: -Low mood -Low self esteem -thoughts of self harming -suicidal thoughts -Problems with body image -isolating yourself from others -not enjoying things you used to love -being withdrawn

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What do you know now about the challenge that you didn't know before?

From our research we have discovered that by the age of 13, 1 in 3 young people will have experienced a menta health difficulty. by 24 that becomes 1 in 2! Youth depression rates have risen from 12.9% to 25.2% from pre-pandemic to 2021. More than 50 million Americans struggle with mental illness. So as you can see from all of these statistics, the publics mental health decreased during lockdown for both teens and adults.

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What have you learnt about your Hero?

Our hero is shy but when around close friends they are comfortable. They don't like busy places or talking to strangers. Our hero is insecure about how they look. They struggle with low self esteem, low mood and low confidence. Challenges they face consist of: comparing themselves to others, constantly looking in the mirror or pictures of themself to point out flaws. The root of the problem is when they downloaded social media and seen friends constantly going tout without them and how different they looked compared to their friends.

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If you could improve one thing for your Hero what would that be?

If we could improve one thing for our hero we would tell them to take a break from social media, spend time with family and good friends, do things you enjoy/ make you happy.

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Do you have any ideas for a potential solution? No matter how raw, share them with your Mentors for feedback.

One solution we are considering is a place to go to. If the place is not in your area we would also make a website with all types of resources including : self care methods, links and phone numbers for mental health support, activity books to complete when feeling low. when at the place/centre it will have the same things and more! the extra things are: group meetings for everyone to share how they feel and good ways of dealing with bad mental health. as well as group meeting it will also have one to one counselling sessions.

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Ask your Mentor anything …. This is a chance to ask your Mentors a direct question relating to your Big Idea.

Do you have any ideas to help our hero?