The Journey to a Supportive Mental Health Landscape
On 3 September 2022, thousands of Singaporeans gathered under a beautiful night sky, united by a noble cause. That day, their presence helped to shed light on the commonly-overlooked topic of suicide. With candid sharings by local artistes about mental health and what it meant to them, a profoundly intimate space was carved out, allowing for open conversations about the conventionally taboo topic.
Spark the Change Fest was organised by the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September). Consisting of a 3KM walkathon, a music festival, and the opening ceremony that Member of Parliament Eric Chua officiated, the event demonstrated Singaporeans’ willingness to stand in solidarity with those grappling with poor mental health.
The awe-inspiring event and the cause it championed stood in stark contrast to how mental health was treated in the past — usually dismissed and swept under the rug. Encouragingly, the juxtaposition shows just how far we have come as a nation and paints an optimistic picture of Singaporeans’ changing mindsets towards mental health.
Increasing Support for Students
The mental health landscape in Singapore is expansive and ever-evolving, with Spark the Change Fest being just one of many events which have since taken root. It is clear that there has been increasing attention and recognition placed on the importance of mental health, and more resources are being diverted to this salient area.
Of particular interest is youth mental health, which has been brought to the forefront of national conversations after tragic happenings involving students, such as the River Valley High incident last year. Students have been rightly identified as an especially vulnerable group, and a more robust support system is in the works to cater to their needs.
For one, schools are strengthening their support systems to accommodate the multi-faceted needs of students better. For instance, peer support structures are increasingly implemented in schools to weave in an additional element of mutual support. Furthermore, teachers are also receiving training to better assist students in navigating complex socio-emotional problems and to provide tailored care to students. According to Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, MOE aims to deploy more than 1,000 teacher-counsellors across Singapore in the next few years — a marked increase from the current number of over 700. These efforts will help to facilitate early intervention and lower the barriers to help-seeking.
Equipping has also come front and centre to enhance students’ mental health literacy and emotional resilience. Within school, mental health education lessons are gradually embedded into the curriculum to equip students with the knowledge and skills to build up their resilience. Outside of school, programmes such as Well-Being Circles help normalise conversations about mental health and promote essential well-being skill-sets.
On a more macro scale, the Interagency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-being has been set up to support well-being in the community. As a task force member, MOE will work with MOH and MSF to focus on the youth segment. With the task force’s primary focus areas coinciding with the problem gaps youths face, such as the cost, accessibility and quality of mental health services, there is reason to be hopeful that youths will receive even more support in the future.
What can we do?
Yet, even with all these efforts, unplugged gaps remain, and sadly, statistics surrounding suicide and mental health only lend credence to this concerning fact. In 2021, 378 lives were lost to suicide. Additionally, a national study launched in 2019 showed that one in three youths in Singapore reported internalising mental health symptoms such as sadness, anxiety and loneliness.
For all the attention placed on mental health, there seems to be a puzzling disconnect between the increased efforts and the numbers reported. Understandably, this may cause us, students, to feel disoriented and helpless as we ask ourselves, “How can we contribute?”. Against the backdrop of these resource and coordination-intensive efforts, what we as individual students can do may seem to pale in comparison.
However, we should not underestimate what we can contribute. Onerous and exacting as it may seem, the responsibility remains ours to support those around us. While grand festivals like Spark the Change Fest and the upcoming Beyond the Label Festival undoubtedly go a long way in raising awareness about mental health, relying solely on these events is untenable.
Ultimately, we need to realise that our roles in advancing the mental health landscape in Singapore are indispensable. As students, we play unique, irreplaceable roles in supporting one another and even in surfacing areas of improvement to help sharpen current policies and efforts. This was also acknowledged by Spark the Change Fest, as evidenced by its slogan of #HowRU, showing how our ability to have simple conversations with our peers can go a long way to normalise conversations and destigmatise the topic of suicide.
Our contributions to the mental health landscape do not have to be large or grand. Instead, we must take the initiative and make the first move. So, this month, take the first step to breach the barrier surrounding mental health, and ask your friends and loved ones a simple “how are you”?
