Nyyti Ry: Action and training for mental health

AN ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT YOUNG PEOPLE’S MENTAL HEALTH AND ABILITY TO MAKE AN IMPACT

The year 2020 stopped the whole world. Teaching and student activities were also deemed to pause. Indeed, research and the media began to talk about students ’growing distress, mental health challenges, and fatigue. However, not everything can be blamed for a pandemic: it is a long-standing problem for which new solutions have long been needed.

Together with Nyyti ry and Tekniikan Akateemiset (TEK), Måndag started a campaign and training for young mental health activists. In the MielenTEKoja -campaign students themselves are trained to respond and come up with solutions to mental health challenges. Måndag designed, produced and implemented the campaign, and helped Nyyti to organize workshops and train the young people. The campaign started in the fall of 2021 and we will continue the work with young people in the spring of 2022.

Nyyti ry is a national and non-profit association that promotes the mental health of students, founded in 1984. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) supports their operations with the proceeds of Veikkaus. TEK is an interest and service organization for graduate engineers, architects and those with a university degree in technology or science. With about 75,000 members, TEK is one of the largest trade unions in Akava and Finland. More than 20,000 of its members are students and students in mathematics and science.