State Secretary Van Ooijen: “To strengthen the position of young people in our democracy, we need to fundamentally rethink their involvement. Our guiding principle should be: nothing about young people without young people. There are many young people with incredibly good ideas whose voices are not being heard enough. I am therefore pleased that the Youth Mental Health Panel has been launched. Our shared goal is to ensure that as many young people as possible can recover mentally after the difficult time they experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. And together we must build a future in which young people can talk about mental health just as easily as they can about physical health. The first brainstorming session immediately produced a wealth of great ideas that we can develop further. I look forward to working with the Youth Panel to explore how we can put this into practice.”
Youth Panel
Last year, the National Youth Council (NJR), in cooperation with the then State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport, decided to establish a Youth Panel. The panel will focus fully on the question: how can we ensure that young people remain mentally healthy and feel good? They do this in close contact with the NJR, policymakers, researchers and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The first session addressed topics including performance pressure in society, attention to mental health and personal development at school, and removing the stigma and taboos surrounding mental health problems.
The panel consists of around 20 young people from all over the Netherlands. Their ages range from 17 to 25. Most are still secondary school pupils or students at a vocational school, university of applied sciences or university, and some also work part-time or have a side job. They participate in the Youth Panel because they want to contribute ideas on how we can improve the prevention of mental health problems at the national level. In their role as panel members, they can proactively provide input on mental health policy and its implementation, and they also receive training to further develop themselves in that role.
Additional attention to mental health
The mental health of all people in the Netherlands suffered greatly during the coronavirus pandemic, but it appears to have had by far the greatest impact on young people. During the coronavirus period, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport supported various local and national initiatives through the Youth Package (€58.5 million) and the Social and Mental Well-being and Lifestyle Support Package (€200 million), aimed at providing accessible mental health support and organising activities for young people. However, experts expect the impact of the coronavirus crisis to continue affecting some of these young people for some time to come. That is why, before the summer, State Secretary Van Ooijen will present an approach to improving young people’s mental fitness. The Youth Mental Health Panel is an important discussion partner in this process.
Martijn Drost of the Netherlands Youth Institute is pleased about the arrival of the Youth Panel. “Policies concerning young people should always be developed in cooperation with young people. After all, they know the challenges they face every day best. It is therefore important to involve them in policies that concern them. It also shows that their opinion really matters.”