Betty analyzed the results of her survey on mental health that received 18 responses. She feels the survey did not get enough attention online and most responses came from her classmates. The majority of respondents were aged 16-18 and male. Over 40% of respondents knew 5 or more people affected by mental health issues. The responses supported campaigning to raise awareness of mental health issues among youth and improving support systems. However, two respondents disagreed with some aspects of campaigning.

1. Analyzing My Results
Betty

2. Results
With minimal success, I was only able to achieve gaining 18 responses. Despite the fact that I posted my
survey on Reddit in a few areas and sent it to a lot of twitter pages, I feel as though this is down to the fact
that my survey didn’t get enough attention online. The majority of these responses are likely from my
classmates, however, because I was in desperate need for answers and so I had to look to them for
support. I found, from other students in the class, that the best way to gain results was to post your survey
over multiple different links across Reddit so that it’s right in front of everybody’s faces. This doesn’t
matter now, though, because 18 results is plenty to work with.

3. What is your age?
The majority of people to answer were in the age
range 16 – 18. This may be down to the fact that most
of the people who answered my questionnaire were
my classmates. However, it could also be because this
is the age range where people are most affected by
mental health. There were a few others who had
answered that were slightly older which will probably
have been people answering on a different platform.
Then there were no results for 12 to 15 which I wasn’t
necessarily expecting but I thought best to include it
as an option.
Without focusing on the fact that my class made up
most of my responses, I am able to identify that there
is a larger audience of a younger generation of teens.
This might have shown that it is a more concerning
issue amongst the youth but I am unable to accept
that as a result.

4. What is your gender?
Most of my results came from a male audience. This
might be regarding the fact that most people affected
by mental health, currently, are male and they feel as
though they would like to speak out for the cause.
Nobody answered for ‘prefer not to say’ and so this
means that I have answers for only male and female.
This is good but also not great because that extra
result could have given me more to work with.
When further inspecting the results and putting the
male stats against female, the percentage of male
responses are 61.11% where as the female result is
38.89%. Therefore, females only make just over a third
of the result. When I look around my class, I can see
an even spread or even more girls than boys in my
class. Therefore, I know that I have gained answers
from another source and they aren’t all just from my
college.

5. How many people, including yourself, do you know
who have been affected by mental health issues?
The majority, which was recorded at 44.44%, was 5+.
This is quite surprising because, although a lot of
people are affected by mental health issues, they
don’t usually tend to want to talk about it. This could
show that people are actually open about talking
about their problems. Otherwise, it may just be a
visible illness and that is why people know. This is a
shame, however, because it proves how big of an issue
this is and it isn’t talked about enough for the number
of people with the illness to drop.
When putting the 5+ results aside, you can see that
the majority still said they know someone or have
been affected by mental illness. There must have been
only one person, at 5.56%, who put N/A and that is
out of 18. These results, obviously, aren’t ideal but it’s
what I need to start campaigning for the cause.

6. With the knowledge that 1 in 4 people, in the UK, have
problems with mental health, do you think that it is necessary
campaign for the cause?
Unfortunately, 2 out of 18 people thought it wasn’t
necessary to campaign for mental health. However,
this doesn’t change my results because the majority
still said ’yes’. 88.89% is well over half way and I think
that half way is about enough to start a campaign.
I think that had I got a majority no result, then I would
have been disappointed since my campaign relies on
the yes answer and a no answer isn’t ideal. However,
it would have been interesting to see why people had
put no, if a lot more did.

7. Because mental health is a bigger issue amongst today's youth,
do you think families, friends, teachers etc. should be made
aware?
This answer is perfect, since the answer is 100% yes
and that is exactly what I want it to be. I also have
comments made by people which are quite varied but
all have the same sort of idea.
A few people discussed different elements of which
could be explored by families, friends and teachers
including the rare illnesses. For example, I wouldn’t
have thought of psychotic mental illnesses because it’s
so rare but can be very dangerous to a person’s well
being and other people around them. Then there was
social media and bullying which contributes massively
to anxiety and depression, especially. It’s also really
major amongst today’s youth, since social media is
very recent. And finally, the fact that mental health
problems aren’t necessarily caused by a life changing
illness. This is so important and so many people need
to be made aware so that we can make a change.

8. If there was support available at the touch of a button, do you
think that people should know about it and be able to have
access to this service whenever they need?
Once again, 2 people answered no which isn’t great
but so long as the rest answered yes, it is ok.
I believe that the majority answered yes because they
must be or they must know someone who has felt so
lonely and needed desperate help. This is the same
with the other answers, as well, as otherwise people
would probably disagree with campaigning at all.
However, this indicates people are answering with a
more emotional perspective. You could ask “why
should people waste time and money talking to others
when they don’t really need it?” Which is probably
what the two people who answered no would say.

9. Do you think that bringing attention to the cause, by making
people aware that they are not alone, will help them speak
out?
Another repeat of two people answering no. For the
most part, people agree that bringing attention to the
cause will help people to speak about their problems.
Ultimately, that might not be the case and it may only
be a small percentage that actually take notice of the
campaign and do something about their problems.
This is clear because it happens all the time, especially
when you find out that people have committed
suicide previously. However, it is still there and at least
if there was a campaign, I know that I have done all
that I can to help.
The only reason I think I wouldn’t campaign for the
cause is if it really offended people, which is
something that I cannot see happening. However, that
is generally not the case.

10. How do you feel about campaigning for this issue?
Elaborate (strongly support/disagree)
A couple of these answers were agree and a couple
disagreed. I was quite intrigued by these answers the reasons
behind them, so that’s why I chose them to discuss. The top
answer disagrees strongly and explains that they feel that
campaigning just makes things worse. In some ways, they
could be right because kids today will say ‘they’re depressed’
or ‘they want to kill themselves’ because they things it’s
funny and so when people are genuinely asking for help, they
won’t be given that support. The other person that disagreed
said that there were other methods that were better. I
would, personally, disagree with this person because there is
never enough support.
The people that agreed made some pretty valid points. The
first one explained that mental health is a lot more important
that physical health and that in order to get physically fit, you
will need to become mentally stable first to be happy and
healthy. Of course, there is also the matter of suicide as this
can be a really serious and threatening matter to someone’s
life so it is important to discuss.

11. What methods do you think could be useful when campaigning
to help those who are considering suicide, because of mental
illness?
For the most part, people thought that counselling
sessions were the best way to approach people with
mental health problems.