#NotJustInYourHead NWC launches new social media campaign on young women’s mental health
Published: Monday, December 07, 2020
NWC launches new social media campaign on young women’s mental health “”It’s not dramatic” “It’s not ‘attention-seeking’” ‘It’s not ‘just in your head’” #NotJustInYourHead
The National Women’s Council (NWC) today (7th December) launched a new social media campaign #NotJustInYourHead to raise awareness of young women’s mental health. The campaign aims to show young women that their mental health is important and encourage them to reach out for support when they need it.
The campaign is informed by research findings in relation to young women’s mental health that indicate significant and specific mental health need among young women in Ireland.
Key findings of My World 2 - The National Study of Youth Mental Health in Ireland (2019) showed that:
Young women indicated increased levels of anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem, resilience, body esteem, optimism, and other protective factors than males of the same age.
Young women were more likely to be in the ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ categories for both depression and anxiety.
Despite this, it is clear that young women were not seeking professional support when they needed it. Young women aged 12-19 were more likely to report needing professional help but that they had no sought it (21%) compared to males (12%). Young women aged 18-25 were more likely to report needing professional help but that they had no sought it (27%) compared to males (21%).
Young women also reported significantly lower levels of coping by seeking support when compared to levels from the first MyWorld survey in 2012.
Orla O’Connor, Director of NWC said,
“There are lots of pressures on young women today, from harassment and sexism, to online bullying and body image expectations. This can have a significant impact on young women’s mental health. Alarmingly, Irish research is showing us that young women’s mental health has been deteriorating. Many young women find it hard to speak about their anxieties and worries and are not reaching out and seeking help.
With our campaign we want to send a clear signal out to young women that their concerns and needs are worthy of being heard and that help is out there for them if they need it. In addition, we want to see a clear focus on young women in our mental health services. We are calling on the Government to provide targeted resources for young women’s mental health, includingkey eating disorder services, counselling services, supports for young women who have experienced violence and mental health campaigns that specifically target the issues young women are facing.
Ciara Fanning, Honorary President, Irish Secondary Schools Union:
"It can be easy as a young woman to be hard on yourself; you feel pressure coming from all sides and it can really take a toll on your mental health. It's so important to know that it is okay to focus on yourself and not to downplay your struggles. We all need to take our mental health seriously and reach out for support when we need it."
Lauren Flynn of the Irish Girl Guides said,
"It is important that our society builds young women's trust. It is not enough to just have mental health services available to young women, they need to feel comfortable availing of them, free from societal stigma. To build trust in young women we have to encourage and support them to believe in themselves, we need them to know that their mental health is important and their problems are "not just in your head".
Anne Sheridan, Programme Manager for Mental Health and Wellbeing with the HSE said,
“We welcome these messages targeting young women which push back on the many pressures that many girls and young women may feel in society. The key message of this campaign acknowledges that it is not always easy being a young woman and encourages those who need support to access it. Supports available through Yourmentalhealth.ie and Jigsaw offer information and advice options for everyone and I would encourage young women to take a look and access the supports.”
As part of the campaign, NWC is encouraging young women to seek support from the following services:
HSE YourMentalHealth https://www2.hse.ie/mental-health/
Jigsaw Youth Mental Health https://jigsaw.ie/get-support/
Freephone Samaritans 116 123 or Text YMH to 50808 (free 24/7 text service)
More information about the #NotJustInYourHead campaign is available on NWC’s website: www.nwci.ie/not_just_in_your_head
NWC’s health work is supported by programme funding from the Health Service Executive.
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For more information or to organise interviews, please contact Silke Paasche, Head of Communications, NWC, Tel. 085 858 9104, silkep@nwci.ie
Notes to Editor:
In MyWorld2, the National Study of Youth Mental Health in Ireland[1], young women indicated increased levels of anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem, body esteem, optimism, resilience and other protective factors than males of the same age.
Young women were more likely to be in the severe and very severe categories for both depression and anxiety. Young women aged 12-19 were more likely (26%) to report deliberate self-harm and were also more likely (46%) to report suicidal ideation than young men of the same age (34%). Young women aged 18-25 were more likely (42%) to report deliberate self-harm than young men (22%).
Despite this, it is clear that young women were not seeking professional support when they needed it[2]. Females aged 12-19 were more likely to report needing professional help but that they had no sought it (21%) compared to males (12%). Females aged 18-25 were more likely to report needing professional help but that they had no sought it (27%) compared to males (21%).
The 2016 Healthy Ireland survey found that young women (15-24 years) were the group with the highest levels of ‘negative mental health’.[3]
In a survey of 2,508 young people from ReachOut in 2017, when asked about their mental health, more young women (34%) reported it was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ compared to young men (21%).[4]
[1] Jigsaw, University College Dublin (2019) My World 2: The National Study of Youth Mental Health in Ireland. http://www.myworldsurvey.ie/content/docs/My_World_Survey_2.pdf
[2] Jigsaw, University College Dublin (2019) My World 2: The National Study of Youth Mental Health in Ireland. http://www.myworldsurvey.ie/content/docs/My_World_Survey_2.pdf
[3] Ipsos MRBI (2016) Healthy Ireland Survey 2016. https://assets.gov.ie/16000/9e29f3fde1f048468485985093754bfd.pdf
[4] Chambers D, Ryan F, Doolan R, Kavanagh N and Healy C. (2017) What’s wrecking your head? – A report on teenage mental health. ReachOut Ireland.