NAM Launches #FeelBetter Campaign: Breaking Silence on Youth Depression

http://www.feelbetterca.org
http://instagram.com/feelbetterca
https://www.facebook.com/FeelBetterCA

SAN FRANCISCO – New America Media is tapping into 30 years of working to promote youth communications, as well as grow a network of youth-produced community media, to launch #FeelBetter, a social media-driven storytelling campaign about depression in young people. Our youth network created the #FeelBetter campaign with the idea that sharing stories about not only depression, but also access to treatment, could begin to break through the stigma that keeps so many young people suffering in silence – and also encourage health coverage enrollment among youth.

Medi-Cal expansion under the Affordable Care Act for the first time offers the promise of health care to young low-income childless adults who never qualified for it before. The young man who inspired the #FeelBetter campaign was crippled by depression for years. He finally accessed health care by enrolling in Medi-Cal early in 2014 and told NAM he wanted to help spread the word.

Nationwide, mental health problems account for 85 percent of the disease burden in people between the ages of 15 and 25. The social stigma around mental illness contributes to this – depression thrives on the silence that keeps people from seeking help. But there is excitement among mental health professionals and advocates about breakthroughs in treatment and expanded access to care. In the words of one young storyteller featured on the #FeelBetter site, speaking about the benefit of seeing a therapist, “At least I know what I’m dealing with. It’s called depression.”

The #FeelBetter site includes a collection of stories from young people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, which will expand as more young people contribute, as well as instructions for obtaining Medi-Cal coverage and a mental health resource map that is searchable by location.

Stories are in a multimedia format and shared using the #FeelBetter hashtag, including print stories, illustrations, and video.

NAM is also partnering with WE Connect, a program of The California Endowment, to help young people connect to resources.

Please follow the campaign on Facebook and Instagram.

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