How to recognize a peer in emotional distress?

Adolescence is a period of great change and many teens might feel as though no one understands them during these years. They find it difficult to confide their troubles to anyone, because they think they are "strange" due to these feelings and that something is wrong with them. Even if they pluck up the courage to talk about it, they usually confide in their peers. It is important to be aware that their peers do not have sufficient experience in recognizing and responding to severe mental distress common in this period of drastic change.

Teenagers found themselves in a difficult situation during the new coronavirus pandemic. Because they are not allowed to socialize with their peers to the same extent as before, they have fewer opportunities to confide their mental distress or even suicidal thoughts to anyone. There is a Counseling Center on the website www.pil.si where teenagers write about their distress and their peers help them. During the pandemic, we noticed an increase in mental distress, including the occasional individuals saying they can no longer endure their situation and are contemplating suicide.

In a time when socializing is limited, we find it important to empower young people aged 11 to 15 to be able to recognize when their peers are in distress and to respond appropriately. For this purpose, we will prepare attractive materials for teenagers, which will raise awareness of the above-mentioned issues. We will prepare an interactive test and an article on the Pil magazine website, which will also be published in a shorter form in the Pil magazine. Our main communication method will be a social media campaign raising awareness through attractive videos. The videos will be made in the style of "draw my life" videos that teenagers love to watch on YouTube.