The Mind Our Health campaign is designed and developed by our Youth Commission on Mental Health and aims to increase the understanding of LGBT young people’s experiences or poor mental health and to raise awareness of young people’s rights in relation to mental health support.
What we know
LGBT Youth’s Scotland’s Youth Commission on Mental Health was first set up in July 2016. It consists of 10 from all across Scotland young people who want to make a difference in improving LGBT young people’s experiences when accessing support.
The youth commission found that LGBT young people are most likely to experience poor mental health as a result of:
Our research also tells us that:
“LGBT Identities don’t cause mental health. Discrimination does!” Young Person
We want to see
PHASE 1: Awareness Raising
The young commission developed eight individual infographics which express the context, research and lived impact poor mental health can have on LGBT young people today.
These were released on May 17th for International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) 2017.
PHASE 2: Young People’s Rights
The commission have developed a fold out resource which includes 5 key rights that they felt LGBT young people should know when accessing support.
This will be launched at Pride Edinburgh on the 17th of June 2017 along with a series of animated clips. These resources will then be distributed to LGBT youth groups across Scotland.
PHASE 3: Influencing Decision Makers
The final phase of the campaign involves the setting up meetings with key decision makers and organisations to discuss our findings and to highlight:
We are working with Scottish Youth Parliament, SeeMe and SAMH and will highlight similar messages including: the need for improved access to mental health services, recognition of youth work’s contribution to supporting young people, and the need for improved support in school settings.
How can you help?
We would love to get their campaign messages out to as many young people and professionals as possible. It would be great if you could share the graphics and rights videos across your social media channels. Below is some key info:
• Follow us @LGBTYS for all live tweets and messages
• Use the hashtag #MindOurHealth
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