When news of a River Valley High School student who allegedly murdered his schoolmate gasped through headlines in 2021, Cho Ming Xiu’s mental health organisation received increased queries related to trauma-informed care. The latter approach presumes that an individual is likely to have a history of trauma.
“Singaporeans learnt that apart from common mental health issues, trauma must be dealt with. It isn’t just Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; it also stems from child neglect and verbal and physical abuse. A lot of mental health issues stem from childhood trauma,” says Cho, who founded Campus PSY in 2016. The centrepiece of its work is training youths to identify signs of distress and provide support for peers beset by mental health struggles.
He says that over the past three years, Campus PSY has dispensed trauma-informed care training to more than 20,000 Singaporeans. Additionally, the non-profit partnered with ByteDance to spread awareness of mental health issues through snappy TikTok videos that garnered up to 30,000 views each.
In Singapore, mental health disorders left untreated represent a pernicious problem, considering the youth suicide rate in 2021 was at a record high.
Since starting Campus PSY, which is bankrolled by public agencies and supported by professionals from the Singapore Association of Mental Health and Samaritans of Singapore, Cho has doubled down on his efforts to bolster youths’ resilience. It recently launched community well-being circles in various precincts, training student peer support leaders to extend emotional support from a community space.
Cho contends that stigmas surrounding mental illness prevail, despite guidelines advising that Singaporeans need not declare their mental health conditions in job applications. “If employers hinder the progress of employees who seek professional help, people will say it is all talk. National policies must align with on-the-ground execution, so people can come forward and seek help without being stigmatised.”
Photography: Mun Kong
Styling: Chia Wei Choong
Hair: Jenny Ng, using Schwarzkopf Professional
Makeup: Priscelia Wong, using Estée Lauder
Photography Assistant: Hizuan Zailani
