projects
The Wellness Project
The Problem
1 out of 4 people will have a mental health challenge in a year. Although young people are learning about physical wellbeing, research shows that there is little clear understanding of what mental health is or how people can take care of themselves. This is especially true in places like Uganda where learned attitudes and beliefs about mental health fuel stigma and therefore become barriers to help seeking and early intervention for mental health challenges.
Changing this is important because ½ of mental health disorders start by age 14 with young people experiencing mental health challenges just like adults while also dealing with the pressures of growing up with no intervention or support leading to consequences like life long impairment, isolation and discrimination.
Our Solution: The Wellness Project
Research shows that school mental health programs are an appropriate way of exploring beliefs about mental health and help-seeking behaviour and initiating early intervention for children. Young people may not fully understand what mental health is but they want to learn about it. In addition, introducing healthy coping mechanisms at a young age is one way of building a foundation for good mental health.
The Wellness Project is our mental health awareness initiative that targets young people in schools so they can learn about mental health, help seeking and take action in their schools and community by helping others improve their mental health. We do this through sharing sessions with the teachers and administrative staff followed by interactive sessions with the students.
How We Keep It Going: The Wellness Club
Learning never ends and this is true for the Wellness Project as well. After the initial mental health awareness sessions, we partner with the participating school to start a Wellness Club. The club is a space to keep learning, and get involved in helping others.
Club members employ their mental health literacy through all kinds of activities to build self-confidence, practice self-care and more. WellnessPsychUg lets the club take the lead and offers support by providing a manual with fun activities oriented towards mental health!
Take Action
Follow us on our social media to stay up to date with The Wellness Project. We’ll share and post other important information about the Wellness Project and our work with young people. Want to learn more? We have lots of content we would love to share with you.
Send us an email and check in. Are you a school and want to get involved? We’re looking to partner with more schools and would love to have a chat! We’d also love to hear from anyone with ideas about youth mental health.
Contact us via email [wellnesspsychug@gmail.com] or by phone [ (+256) 758 983827 / (+256) 788 136450 ].