From 25 to 29 April 2022, the second round of the European youth exchange project ShareCare will take place in Maastricht. Young people aged 18 to 30 will take part. They come from youth support organisations including @ease (Netherlands),
An international youth lab for mental wellbeing. Young people from the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark are spending five days in Maastricht, working together on innovations in youth mental health. The goal of this project is to lower the threshold for talking and learning about mental health. The group also aims to reduce stigma around mental health issues. During the exchange, the young participants visit inspiring international examples and support each other in co-creating an international youth-led innovation lab focused on mental wellbeing. They are working together on three key themes:
1. Reaching out to European politicians to increase and improve investment in youth mental health care.
2. Developing appropriate support systems for young people volunteering in the field of mental health.
3. Sharing personal messages to create more openness around psychological issues.
“Mental health matters to all of us. But right now, it’s still not common to talk about it with friends, at home, in school or at work. With this project, we want to help create the societal shift that’s needed to bring more openness and real change. We aim to give young people the space to start that conversation, from their own perspective, based on what they need.”
Eef Jütten, volunteer at @ease
Part of the global Youth Mental Health Movement
ShareCare is visiting the @ease location in Maastricht. Stichting @ease is the Dutch version of the successful Australian initiative Headspace. Headspace was launched by the Australian government in 2006 and now offers free, low-threshold mental health support to young people in more than 145 centres. The results are very positive! Similar initiatives can be found in countries like Denmark, Canada, Israel, Ireland, Belgium, France and Germany. Together, they form a global, science-based Youth Mental Health Movement. In the Netherlands, @ease has locations in Maastricht, Amsterdam, Heerlen, Rotterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Leeuwarden.