A representative of the NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro attended an online panel discussion on “Youth and Mental Health” organized by CAZAS and the Center for Youth Education with the support of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, on November 27 2020.
The topic of the lecture was “Youth and mental health”.
In the first part of the lecture, the representative of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Danijela Vujošević, and the representative of the Center for Youth Education, Jugoslav Radović, addressed the audience.
Danijela pointed out that today, more than ever, it is necessary to talk about the mental health of young people.
She also pointed out how important it is to preserve mental health.
“Mental problems can be detected up to the age of 14. Many factors affect the mental health of young people, such as school, socializing, family relations and others”, said Danijela Vujosević.
The representative of the Center for Youth Education, Jugoslav Radović, spoke a bit more about the realization of the project itself.
“The project completely met expectations, regardless of COVID-19. When it comes to a project that is primarily aimed at young people and maintaining mental health, I want to point out that we had online communication with over 130 people and with more than 70 people who were present at the physical workshops,” said Jugoslav Radović.
In the second part of the lecture, psychologist Nikolina Radović, psychologist Danilo Đurić and youth representative Anđela Matanović addressed the audience.
“Work on this project began at the end of last year, however, as the situation changed, so did we adjust this project. We held a large number of workshops through the cities of Montenegro under special conditions”, said Nikolina.
Psychologist Danilo spoke about the relationship between psychologists and young people, as well as the most common problems they face.
“As for conversations between young people and psychologists, those things remain between them, because psychologists do not talk to parents about what they talked about with their children”, Danilo said.
He also pointed out what are the most common problems among young people and how many visits to a psychologist are in relation to the age of young people.
“The most common problems among young people are: anxiety, depression, violent behavior and reaction. A small number of high school students visit psychologists, while there are more students”, said Danilo.
Danilo believes that the Center for Mental Health does not have as many young people visits as it should.
Anđela as a youth representative expressed her opinion on this topic.
“Going to a psychologist is a taboo topic today. Many people think that going to a psychologist is related to severe mental problems”, Angela pointed out.
Angela emphasized that the stories of young people and their experiences were further passed on to other people by psychologists, which is why they are repulsed by them.
Mental health is not just the absence of a mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being in which each person realizes their potential, copes with the daily stress of life, is able to work productively and is able to contribute to their community.