Cancelled - Let's Talk About Mental Health

Young people and youth workers need skills and attitudes to promote good mental health, well-being and healthy lifestyle among youth in Europe. But how? Let’s talk about mental health!Mental health matters!

Good mental health is fundamental to safeguard and enhance the quality of life, well-being and productivity of individuals, families, workers and communities, and therefore increases the strength and resilience of the society. Young people, as an essential part of the society, need the space and resources to learn more, talk more and act more on the issues that are related with mental health.

As society becomes more vocal about mental health issues, some youth workers find it hard to talk with young people on such issues; simply because they are worried that the topic might be upsetting, that some personal or medical topics might come up during the conversation that they don’t know how to address.

Talking about mental health from an early age on, helps the individuals to better understand their emotions, become more resilient through knowing how to take care of themselves mentally and physically – which are equally essential. By talking and gaining more competences, we can not only stop feeding the social stigma around mental health, but also learn ways to resist the stigma when it shows up. 

From a European youth work perspective, young people's health and well-being is also a permanent priority in Erasmus+ Youth in Action and it is also highlighted in the European Youth Strategy.

Objectives of the Seminar

The main aim of this Seminar is to equip youth workers (and those working with young people in settings that are relevant to youth work) with knowledge, skills and attitude on how to address mental health issues and to strengthen all young people’s mental health.

The objectives are:

- To learn ways to support positive mental health through well-being and healthy lifestyles,

- To share good practices on how to support the well-being of young people,

- To have a better understanding of mental health issues and how they relate to the life of a young person,

- To learn how to tackle stigma on mental health issues,

- To share youth work practices on dealing with mental health issues,

- To get familiar with Erasmus+ and the funding possibilities it offers

The programme consists of inputs by experts, interactive workshops and presentation and exploration of different ways of working on the topic, including field trips to local organisations. 

Profile of Participants

This seminar is an opportunity for youth workers and persons in other relevant positions in youth work who are currently working and/or interested to work on the topics of mental health in youth work context.

Participants should have sufficient language skills to be able to communicate in English and a willingness to bring back, and to implement the new knowledge and skills to their local communities.

Participants will be accommodated in Tønsberg Hostel  (http://tonsbergvandrerhjem.no/bilder/ ) where you will share room with another person of the same gender. Tønsberg Hostel is peacefully located close to Tønsberg Castle Mountain, just a 5-minute walk from the train station, a 10-minute walk from the city center and a 20-minute drive to campus.The hostel has free parking,

The program will take place at the University of South-Eastern Norway, Campus Vestfold, and visits will be organised to the cities of Tønsberg and Horten. Local transport during the seminar is covered.