Hangbou Oeng
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Hangbou Oeng

What is your specific area of interest in youth mental health advocacy?

My specific areas of interest in youth mental health advocacy are Peer Advocacy, Anti-stigma Advocacy, and Social Media Advocacy.

why is youth mental health advocacy important to you?

My aunt's passing away from kidney cancer put me at my worst mental stage in high school and mental wellbeing is still not widely talked about in my 3rd generation immigrant and a lot of other Asian families. I knew I had to raise the topics to break the generational trauma.

how would you describe mental health in your community?

The Cambodian government’s total expenditure on mental health is only 0.02% of total health expenditure. There are still cases of stigma from older generations and victim-blaming of suicide cases online. Whilst there is greater awareness about depression in general, this awareness does not extend to other specific mental illnesses or their treatments.

Project Summary

Know Better aims to be a multimedia campaign and community peer support to raise awareness and knowledge among Cambodian youths about the complex characteristics/pictures of different mental disorders by first tackling bipolar disorder, so they could understand, know better, and manage their mental wellbeing better.