THE NGEE ANN KONGSI-IPS CITIZENS’ PANEL ON YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH
One of the key social issues affecting youths in Singapore today is the rise in mental health problems. While problems relating to mental health are not new, they have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised a Citizens’ Panel on Youth Mental Health from 19 March to 16 April 2022. Funded by The Ngee Ann Kongsi, the Citizens’ Panel engaged 55 participants — students from Republic Polytechnic (RP) — who worked together to develop solutions to tackle the following challenge statement:
“As a community, how can we improve mental health and mental resilience among youths in Singapore?”
The Citizens’ Panel was convened to meet two key objectives: First, to provide a platform for youths to play a role as active citizens. Second, to generate proposals that various stakeholders would find helpful and may implement. Such an initiative is aligned with the government’s Building Singapore Together vision of promoting ownership among citizens for creating and implementing policy solutions. Through engaging with one another in facilitated discussions, and with expert speakers and resource persons (i.e., subject matter experts), participants developed evidence-based proposals as a collective.
The Citizens’ Panel was held over seven online sessions on the following days:
- Session 1: 19 March (Sat), 10am to 1pm
- Session 2: 22 March (Tue), 6pm to 9pm
- Session 3: 24 March (Thurs), 6pm to 9pm
- Session 4: 31 March (Thurs), 6pm to 9pm
- Session 5: 7 April (Thurs), 6pm to 9pm
- Session 6: 12 April (Tue), 6pm to 9pm
- Session 7: 16 April (Sat), 10am to 1pm
What are Citizens’ Panels? Since 2017, IPS has worked with different government agencies to design and implement Citizens’ Panels – which are a public engagement process based on deliberative principles. They include the Citizens’ Panels on the War on Diabetes, Recycle Right and Work-Life Harmony.
Besides impact on policy, the Citizens’ Panels also made a significant impact on participants. Participants acquired valuable insights on the process of policymaking and gained greater confidence in their ability to make a difference to the Singapore society. Some of them have since partnered different agencies to implement solutions on the ground.
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