Mr Desmond Choo, Mayor of North East District and Advisor to Tampines Grassroots Organisations

Adjunct Associate Professor Lee Cheng, Vice President, Singapore Association for Mental Health, and Clinical Director, Office of Population Health, Institute of Mental Health

Mr James Teo Wee Wee, President, The Ngee Ann Kongsi

Dr Loo Choon Yong, Executive Chairman, Raffles Medical Group

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. It is my pleasure to launch the Curiography Exhibition, as well as the President’s Challenge (PC) - Institute of Mental Health (IMH) programme today.

I would like to begin by congratulating the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) for launching the Curiography Exhibition as part of SAMH Creative Services’ 10th anniversary celebrations. This virtual exhibition encourages youth to exercise curiosity in their daily lives through photography to enhance their mental well-being. I am heartened by the continued efforts of SAMH Creative Services for supporting the mental and emotional well-being for persons in recovery and the community at large, and for raising important conversations about mental health. The video we watched earlier helps us to understand the importance of art therapy, in the sense that it allows people with mental health issues to focus on and channel their energies towards positive emotions and feelings. I think art therapy is very important in helping people improve their mental health.

COVID-19 has highlighted concerns about the mental health of the current generation of children. Many studies have looked into the undisputable effects of the pandemic on youth mental state. Yet, even more worrying is that this may just represent the tip of an iceberg, and one that we may have ignored for too long. In its latest flagship report – the State of the World’s Children report – UNICEF revealed a sobering trend of rising psychological distress among youths around the world. For example, the rate of depression among US adolescents increased from 8.5% to 13.2% between 2005 and 2017. Worldwide, suicide was found to be the fourth most common cause of death among adolescents, and the leading cause in Eastern Europe and central Asia.

Sadly, similar trends are also seen in Singapore. Over the five-year period from 2015 to 2020, the number of adolescents seen at IMH for depression has increased by about 60%. Anecdotally, we also hear of more students facing stress-related issues over time.

Currently, there are very few youth-centric community-based mental health services. Youths who need support for their mental health issues can approach Social Service Agencies (SSAs) or IMH’s REACH (Response, Early intervention and Assessment in Community mental Health) team, but many may not do so for various reasons, such as fear of stigmatisation or lack of awareness. In particular, we find that two groups of youths need more help from our current system - (i) those whose needs are not severe enough to be admitted into IMH but still require community support -- mental health conditions can get progressively worse if there is a lack of early treatment and (ii) those who require care after discharge from IMH, which means that they have recovered sufficiently to be cared for at home, but still need intensive support and care by specialists. More can be done to build a community of care, by equipping SSAs with the capabilities to provide basic assessment and timely interventions for these youths. The PC-IMH programme will serve as an important bridge between hospitalisation and home-care for youths with mental health issues.

Through the PC-IMH programme, SSAs will be trained by IMH to provide clinically sound interventions and psychosocial support to the youths in a community setting. By taking this stepped care approach, we can ensure that the mental health needs of these youths are well managed while they stay at home to recuperate. Beyond the training, IMH will also hold regular case conferences with the SSAs and have case managers function as a single point of contact to ensure a smooth transition of care.

I am confident that the PC-IMH programme will help to uplift the capabilities of the social sector and provide essential intervention and support to our youths in a familiar setting. Some people do not like to visit IMH for fear of being stigmatised, so it is important they continue to get care in a setting that they and their families are comfortable with. By situating mental healthcare within the community, the PC-IMH programme also helps to holistically address the social issues faced by youths and their families. Sometimes it is not just the mental wellness, but also the social issues that affect the young, which require support and intervention. I am heartened that four SSAs, including SAMH, have joined the programme and I urge more SSAs to join us in supporting our youths with mental health needs.

I also thank The Ngee Ann Kongsi and Raffles Medical Group for their generous donations towards the PC-IMH programme. I look forward to this partnership strengthening the support for our youths with mental health conditions.

Thank you.