Across the globe, mental health issues amongst youth (people age 18 and younger) have been rising in frequency in both urban and rural populations. The mental health crisis among young people is only exacerbated by a lack of awareness surrounding these issues along with the increasing presence of technology in the everyday lives of youths. The most recent Indonesia National Adolescent Mental Health Survey highlights the fact that 34.9 percent of adolescents are classified as people with mental health problems, including anxiety and behavioral disorders (I-NAMHS, 2022). This is a staggering statistic, and underscores the current mental health crisis in Indonesia in particular compared to other countries. Tackling this issue requires a combination of education, awareness, and support for those struggling.
Pinpointing any single cause for the mental health crisis among young people is nearly impossible, but many factors can be acknowledged for their influence. The lockdowns of COVID-19 are globally understood to have had a disproportionate effect on young people, per multiple studies including that of Konstantina Magklara, published in the National Library of Medicine. Likely, isolation alongside excessive exposure to media and technology greatly contribute to these results. Social media itself also plays a large role in the declining mental health of young people, as a Stanford-published article states that “the use of social networking sites is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress (…) particularly (…) in adolescents compared to younger children” (Minamitani 2024). Alarmingly, a 2017 poll carried out by KOMINFO discovered that 93.52% of all adolescents within Indonesia use at least one form of social media. This means that 93.52% of Indonesian adolescents are actively putting themselves at greater risk for developing mental health issues, outside of potential environmental and biological factors. These, alongside an increased ability to identify and diagnose mental health issues, have assisted in creating the current state of mental health in young people in Indonesia as well as the rest of the globe.
Within Indonesia, the mental health crisis is worsened by a lack of understanding and a looming stigma surrounding mental health issues. Pasung is perhaps one of the most extreme treatments of people suffering from mental illness, which is the practice of confining and/or restraining the mentally ill. The Indonesian government has certainly made steps to end Pasung, but national-level policymaking can be difficult to implement on local or regional levels, especially when it comes to secretive treatments like pasung (BMC, 2023). While the existence of pasung is not necessarily worsening the Indonesian mental health crisis, it is a shining example of the long-standing beliefs in Indonesia surrounding mental health and the mentally ill. Most people feel ashamed of coming forward as a person suffering from a mental illness since Indonesian media chooses not to highlight or normalize the experiences of these people (Hartini 2018). Many families would rather hide family members that are struggling with mental illness, and this causes young people to feel greatly reduced self-efficacy. In turn, they choose not to seek medical help and only worsen the issue. Thankfully, there is a clear-cut solution to decreasing stigma that has been proven by multiple studies: education.
A paper published in the Journal of Mental Health and Clinical Psychology by researchers at Georgia Gwinnett College states that “mental health prevention and awareness-raising can normalize seeking help and motivate individuals to take action when they need support” (Shim 2022). What is most critical to understand is that mental health issues are deeply personal and individual. To be resolved, we as a society must empower the individual just as much as we focus on empowering entire communities. This empowerment comes in the form of education, Certain steps have already been taken in Indonesia to increase education surrounding mental health, and with backing from international organizations such as UNICEF, the Indonesian Ministry of Health has implemented a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) program in 22 different schools across 5 different Indonesian provinces (UNICEF 2024). This program entails mental health screenings alongside mental health education for junior high students, as well as mental health training for school faculty in hopes that they can continue to address these issues for years to come. The MHPSS program works towards the mission of “Remaja Sehat Jiwa Ceria”, or healthy and happy adolescents, and is breaking ground in terms of creating school environments in which students feel safe to voice their own mental health struggles without fear of judgement or stigma.
While the MHPSS program is leading the charge of destigmatizing mental health issues in Indonesia through education, it is currently implemented in .00055% of junior high schools. This is certainly a start, but it is up to the Indonesian government alongside its population to truly create long-lasting change.
“Habis gelap, terbitlah terang.” These are the words of Indonesian feminist Raden Ajeng Kartini, and they ring true today just as they did over a century ago. Indonesia needs to embrace the mental health crisis to resolve it; needs to step out of the dark and welcome an era of healing, especially among young people who are most susceptible to these disorders. Whether it be the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns or the increasing presence of social media and technology in adolescents, mental health has clearly been declining in recent years. By increasing education and awareness of mental health issues, empathy can be increased as well and stigmas can begin to fall. Only then–that day when anxiety, depression, and PTSD are taken just as seriously and spoken of as openly as a broken leg or a weak heart–will the mental health crisis begin to heal in Indonesia and around the world. [Jam]
Works Cited
https://www.unicef.org/indonesia/stories/resilience-blooms-central-javas-adolescents-path-mental-health#:~:text=Mental%20health%20among%20adolescents%20is,5%20adolescents%20has%20anxiety%20issues.
https://clinical-practice-and-epidemiology-in-mental-health.com/VOLUME/20/ELOCATOR/e17450179331951/FULLTEXT/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37982248/
Social Media Addiction and Mental Health: The Growing Concern for Youth Well-Being
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.985112/full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6217178/#:~:text=The%20prevalence%20of%20severe%20mental,is%20the%20practice%20of%20pasung.https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-023-00579-6
https://www.mentalhealthjournal.org/articles/mental-health-education-awareness-and-stigma-regarding-mental-illness-among-college-students.html