“Digital technology plays a big part in the everyday life of young people. It can have both a positive and a negative effect on them, with online activity being linked to poor mental health in children and adolescents. Despite that, there is very little guidance for mental health professionals on how to tackle this growing issue.”
These words are extracted from the Digital Chats website, a University of Bristol’s research team looking at supporting mental health practitioners to engage young people in acceptable, safe and useful conversations about their online activities and how these impact on their mental health.
In collaboration with the mental health charity Many Minds and the Oasis Academy Brightstowe, they presented a performance at the school to an audience of parents, young people, mental health practitioners, and policy-makers: IRL Influencer. This performance explored with young people their thoughts and feelings about how using the internet impacts their mental health.
I was very pleased to be invited to live illustrate the evening and very impressed by the student’s powerful performance.