HELPING

HANDS,
HEALING
MINDS
Victoria Balcom

What is a brain illness?

Brain illness, or mental illness, is the term used to
describe a wide variety of disorders that affect
behavior, mood and thought process.
Some of the most common Brain Illnesses that affect
teens include depression, personality, anxiety and
eating disorders.
Experiencing depression as a teen can cause you to
experience physical pain, extreme sensitivity to
criticism, addictive behavior, recklessness, and in some

5 Survey Questions
1. Have you, or anyone you know, struggled with an
untreated brain illness? (That could be anything like
Depression, OCD, BPD, Anxiety, etc.)
2. Do you think that having a resource for support would
have been useful? Or would be?
3. Do you know of any strong sources of support? What
do you do when you need support?
4. What do you think characteristics of a healthy brain
are?
5. Have you ever felt disrespected because of an
experience with a brain illness?

My product
I want to create a website for people struggling with
brain illness, full of resources and support.
The resources would be numbers for support hotlines,
links to books about understanding brain health,
advice, student testimonials, other products from class
and so on and so forth.

How will this help our community?

I dont believe that there is a stigma at HTHCV
surrounding depression or other brain illnesses, but If
somebody who was struggling with a brain illness
knew about resources and other people out there who
were going through the same thing, people (especially
teens) would be far more willing to get help and would
feel less isolated.

Real World
Example
I Need A Lighthouse
INAL is a depression and suicide awareness program based out
of Virginia, and their website is a very strong model for what
Im trying to accomplish.
Mission Statement: To significantly reduce the loss and
suffering from youth depression, suicide and suicidal behavior
in communities throughout the region. INAL will be the leading
provider of education programs that increase the communitys
awareness of the serious consequences associated with

Needed Skills
What I have: Organization, personal experience,
research, website/blog design.
What I need: Dedicated team members, strong ideas,
experience with website design, open mindedness.

S.M.A.
S. Create, design and publish a website of resources for students to
use when they or somesomeone they know is struggling with a brain
illness.
M. Getting the information for what we need to put on the website is
attainable by sending
out out survey questions, modifying
them to fit the parameters of what we would need to
kno know.
A.I already know how to create a website using google sites and
weebly, or a blog using blogspot or tumblr. The resources to put on
the website would be easy to research, testimonials, artwork and
writing pieces would be easy to create, and we could possibly
include other final products from class.

R.T.
R. Approximately 20 percent of teens will experience depression
before they reach aduadulthood. Teens experiencing brain illness could
become extremely isolated, and sossomething like this could help them
be able to talk about it and open up.
T. If the people in this group split up the responsibilities, we will
definitely be finished before exhexhibition. For example, two people
taking over the website design responsibility, while the the remaining
members take over research, or any other role we deem necessary.

THAN
K