Our Initiatives
As a mental health platform, our duty is to always raise awareness and break the stigmatisation of mental health. True – the Green Ribbon Group is not made up of mental health professionals and we do not offer services. Nonetheless we feel this sets us apart in the sense that we are ordinary folks who are working to deconstruct and understand mental health better.
Given the Covid-19 pandemic, some of us have had to adjust to new working arrangements, while others have suffered from pay cuts and retrenchment. We are therefore proud to have been given the opportunity to assist Takaful Malaysia with “Mental Health and Well-being in the Workplace,” a guide that was distributed to their 1,000 employees in January 2022.
To download the guide, please visit Publications. Mental health in the workplace was also our theme on social media throughout January 2022. The Green Ribbon Group is now on LinkedIn, and we hope to interact more with corporations and key experts on the platform.
This year, our focus is to train and mobilise more leaders in mental health. A holistic ecosystem for an empathetic, world-class community approach to mental health in Malaysia must be sustainable in the long-run, and raising awareness must be accompanied by basic skills to support ourselves and one another. We must also be able to redirect those in distress to the appropriate services for help. Our contribution to narrowing existing gaps in accessibility is by establishing community champions and incorporating them into the mental health resource pool.
The GREAT Project
On 8-9 January 2022, the Green Ribbon Group ran a pilot for 30 students from Universiti Malaya (UM) called The Green Ribbon Effective Agent Training (GREAT) Project. The training programme encompasses introduction to mental health, empathy training and advocacy.
Based on the theme, “A Community Approach to Students’ Mental Health,” the 1.5-day programme – designed in collaboration with our resource partner the Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA) – is as follows:
- Understanding Mental Health and Mental Illness
- Offering Practical Help in Crisis Events
- Empathy Training
- Case Study Activity
- Advocacy: Building a Campaign
Participants design their own advocacy campaign on a topic of their choice, and they will advocate for mental health in their respective colleges and faculties throughout the year. These students are essentially Green Ribbon Ambassadors on campus who:
- Understand their own mental health and those around them.
- Are equipped with basic skills to provide support.
- Advocate to help boost mental health literacy.
Testimonials by The GREAT Project participants
Out of 30 participants…
Out of 30 participants 70% of the participants who attended the GREAT Project at Universiti Malaya were females, while 30% were males. They come from various backgrounds such as Medicine, Computer Science, Language & Linguistics, Arts and Social Science, Biological Science, Education and Islamic Studies.
The GREAT Project is open to undergraduate students from all disciplines. In the long-term, the Green Ribbon Group would like to establish The GREAT Project as a nationwide student network of mental health advocates. If you would like to bring The GREAT Project to your university, please contact our Advocacy and Programmes Executive, Marsya Shamshul Bahari at [email protected].
The initiatives below were our response to the mental health crisis that Malaysia faced in 2021, given the spike in Covid-19 cases and the lockdowns we experienced. All initiatives were fully sponsored by the Green Ribbon Group. We hope our support created a domino effect whereby the skills that participants learnt in these programmes have trickled down into their communities.
Mental Health First Aid
Supported 100 Mental Health First Aid training sessions at RM600 per individual to equip participants with skills to identify and respond to signs of mental illness and substance use. These individuals were split into two factions – 18-25 years old, and 26 years old and above. Participants had to pass an examination at the end in order to be an accredited First Aider for three years.
Testimonials by Mental Health First Aid participants
Out of 100 participants…
Data indicates…
- There is more interest amongst females to be certified in Mental Health First Aid.
- There is interest across the country as only Melaka and Perlis were not represented / did not have participants.
- There is actually interest amongst the older participants given the higher accreditation rate amongst those aged 26 and above.
Moving forward, we would like to further expand and localise this course to fit our cultures and customs here at home. We would also like to target specific demographics. For instance, initial data point to a low take-up rate amongst men – something for us to consider when we re-implement the MHFA for future cohorts. School counsellors and teachers are another target demographic, as well as employers and employees.
A Conversation on Suicide
Supported 25 training sessions at RM400 per session to raise awareness on suicide prevention and provide support to those who need it the most. This was initiated by the Green Ribbon Group in response to the rising cases of suicides in 2021.
Testimonials by A Conversation on Suicide participants
Out of 25 sessions…
Data indicates…
- There is interest to learn about suicide prevention and awareness across multiple communities in Malaysia.
- In contrast to data on Mental Health First Aid, there is more interest amongst men to learn more about suicide prevention and awareness.
- Similarly to Mental Health First Aid, there is more interest amongst those aged 26 and above.
Data from Mental Health First Aid and A Conversation on Suicide refutes the assertion that the older generation do not believe in mental health and/or are not interested in learning more about mental health.
A Conversation: The Series is the next step to deep-dive into other issues and still maintain the similar model of a one-off, two-hour session. For example, we would like to design a similar programme for high schools with a focus on self-harm i.e. ‘A Conversation on Self-Harm’. There is also a need to train more people who are fluent in Mandarin and Tamil to further penetrate into different communities.
Psychotherapy / Counselling
Supported 200 sessions at RM50 each for anyone in need with an unlimited quota per person. These sessions were conducted from 1 July 2021 until 7 December 2021. The helpline wasn’t in response to crises, but for therapy and/or counselling services. A few sessions were in-person therapy for persons in distress.
Out of 200 participants…
Data indicates…
- The public are receptive to receiving help if it is accessible and private.
- Individuals seeked help for an average of 4.5 times.
- There is interest to get to the root cause of an individual’s stressors i.e. help-seeking behaviour is evident.
Sponsoring more sessions would not only result in more data, but it would also directly address a pressing need at the moment i.e. assisting current helplines that are overburdened. Moving forward, we could explore a 1-800-GRG helpline as well as a text messaging service.
Caregiver-led Support Groups
Supported translation and printing of two Caregiver Education Programme manuals – for participants and facilitators – at RM30,000 in total.
Caregivers are often forgotten in the context of mental healthcare. We overlook them without even realising it.
We would like to push the message that one cannot pour from an empty cup. Caregivers must also be equipped with the right skills so they are better able to support both themselves and their loved one/s with lived experience.
We have plans with Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA) to set up a Caregiver-led Support Group in each state, and have all members undergo the education programme with support from the Ministry of Health.