Building mental resilience for young adults

Abstract

Mental health among young adults is in sharp decline, with over 68% of young adults in Europe reporting signs of burnout in the past year (Strava, 2021). This increasing prevalence of mental health problems among young adults, including burnout, anxiety, depression and feelings of hopelessness, has been exacerbated by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and societal pressures. Despite increased awareness, reduced stigma and efforts to improve mental health, the number of diagnoses appears to be increasing. The demand for professional mental health care is outstripping the capacity of institutions to provide it, making it difficult to access professional care in a timely manner and leading to an increasing reliance on biochemical solutions for symptom relief rather than psychotherapy. This sudden increase in mental health diagnoses among young adults cannot be attributed to changes in genetics, as genes don't change in a population over such a short period of time. If we assume that neither reduced stigma nor a change in genetics is solely responsible for the increase in mental health diagnoses, then we seem to have created an environment that is conducive to mental health problems in young adults. In particular, the transition from a learning environment to a working environment seems to be a moment of vulnerability for young adults, and this research therefore focuses on a transitional group, mostly aged 20-28, who can identify with this life transition. The aim of this thesis is to address the social phenomenon of declining mental health among the transitional group and to look for novel ways forward.

In order to find ways forward, a probable vision for the future of 2032 is defined through the collection of 168 contextual factors; concise statements that serve as building blocks for the future context. These are collected through semi-structured interviews with the transition group, interviews with experts such as philosophers, psychologists and psychiatrists, books, journals and documentaries. This probable future context is made understandable through a framework that describes six states of mind into which the transition group can be trapped.

By articulating the normative values of the designer, a number of goals and ambitions emerge for each state of mind that help to move closer to a desired future. For each of these goals, ideas were generated and a strategic set of six promising interventions was developed. Due to time constraints, only the 'One on One' concept was selected for further development into a prototype...