The Project...

By chance, it was a long overdue catch up between old friends and the exchanging of stories led to the UME project. From sharing our experiences of the problems we faced as teens we realised we were not as alone as we thought, and that many people we knew had been through, or experienced personal troubles too.

We agreed that there were two things that really didn't make the situation any better: the STIGMA surrounding mental health, the pressure to 'KEEP QUIET AND CARRY ON', and the fact we never had support from anyone who REALLY understood what we were going through. There is much room for improvement in the mental health support sector – especially for teens!  

Our project aims to 'FILL IN THE GAPS' from a different perspective as our starting place. A teenage perspective. From there we hope to be able to help tackle the current and very real issue of troubled teenage mental health.

Tackling the stigma attached to mental illness is possibly the hardest part of the project because it has been embedded into our culture to view those who are depressed or have low self-confidence as 'WEAK' and 'DIFFERENT' in a negative way.  We aim to change this perception by showing teens the different types of mental illness and presenting them with facts that highlight how common these problems actually are. By ACTIVELY DISCUSSING mental illness and educating teens in an open way, we hope to encourage sufferers to SEEK SUPPORT from friends, family, and us so that we can help them on their journey to recovery.

So far, we have participated in school assemblies and will be holding lifeskills classes to introduce, involve, and make teens aware of this project. In the classes we will cover the topics of DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, EATING DISORDERS, LOW SELF-CONFIDENCE and OCD. We also plan to deliver a self-confidence building class. In school  we hope to establish a UME drop-in centre where pupils can come for advice and support on problems they might be facing or simply to have a chat if they are feeling low. You will also be able to get in touch with us via email, or phone by using the information on our contact page.

We are well aware of the potential benefits this project could offer pupils and if all goes well we hope that other schools will adopt these measures to MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE to teenagers across the board.