Depression: Signs, Symptoms and Management Techniques

DEPRESSION

Aim and Target population
• The educational tool will identify the knowledge
gaps present among the youth, in relation to
depression, its signs and symptoms, and
effective management techniques.
• The tool will act in the form of crisis
intervention for providing counselling services
to the target population for overcoming
depression.
• Teenagers and younger adults aged between
15-22 years form the target population.

Most adolescents and teens experience feelings of
persistent unhappiness, and sadness that go
unnoticed and unreported, thereby outweighing
their excited and happy emotions. Tireless feelings
of being stressed, sad and irritable are common
among the youth and adolescents that make it
difficult for them to relax, or enjoy activities, which
were once considered pleasurable, thus worsening
the physical and mental wellbeing. The target
audience here will be the teenager section of the
society as the statistical data collected from the
World Health Organization (2018) determined that
teenagers or the age group of 15 to 22 years is
mostly affected with stress and depression. Hence,
there is a need to increase awareness on
depression and its management, among the target
population.

What is depression?
• Mental condition that is characterised by low
mood, along with reduced self-esteem, pain
without any cause, false beliefs, and hearing or
seeing things that others are not able to
perceive.
• More than 300 million people in the world are
affected with depression that has been
recognised as a major reason for disability
(WHO 2018).
• Around 8.9% or 1 in 11 people living in
Australia, reported depression in 2014-2015,
with more prevalence among women (ABS
2015).