The Mental Health Support team

A child and mother watch the MHST animations on their laptop and tablet, the child is pointing to the screen.

The mission.

Communicate mental health support to children and young people.

We worked with Enable East to produce a series of informative and engaging animations and creative materials to support the roll-out of a new Mental Health Support Team [MHST]. The MHST aims to support and improve the mental health of young people in primary, secondary and further education in Essex.

A collection of social media posts featuring characters and quotes from the animated films.

The animations.

We created animations using insights from focus groups with professionals and listening to young people with lived experience who are benefiting from support provided by the mental health support team.

We used a bright and colourful animation style, communicating mental health messages calmly and clearly. Using storytelling and narration, we made information simple and easy to understand and ensured that the story and key messages were relatable to the audience.

Communicating mental health to college students.

Following the successful release of the films for primary and secondary schools, we were approached again by Enable East to produce a new series of short films promoting the MHST service, this time targeting college students.

These films each focus on a different aspect of life at college, including fitting in and managing projects and assignments. The decision was made to take a more abstract approach to the look and feel of these films to appeal to an older audience who may be experiencing a much different set of problems. We did this by incorporating a stylish but less-refined art style and following less of a real-world narrative, instead, using creative ways to reflect life at college and the various mental health problems college students may face.