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Madly in Love - Day 3 - Bonus Audio Task

Helen — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:29:55 GMT

Hello again,

I just wanted to put this in a separate thread rather then overloading the other thread. It's also an additional task that some of you may feel more comfortable doing than others. :)

We wanted to give you the chance to share your ideas verbally using audio tools.

As ever, here's an example that Sean created using his mind map about talking about your partner to your friends. It really brings the situation to life - hearing a real voice relaying the experience. As a resource, it's easy to share online too.

Here are some tips on how to approach it:

1) Find your recording equipment! Most phones have a voice recorder these days, but if your laptop has a mic, that?s even better.

2) Go to audioboo.fm and create an account. If you?re using a laptop just straight to 3). If you?re using a phone, read 2.1)

2.1) If you?re using a phone, simply record your voice using your phone?s voice recorder. Start off with the issue you want to talk about, and then drill down into some of the challenges. Lastly, address these challenges ? suggest how you might deal with them (or have dealt with them).

2.2)Most phones record in a format called .amr. You?ll need to convert this to .mp3. Transfer the audio file from your phone to your laptop or computer. Download this converter. Run the audio file through it (it should only take a few minutes).

2.3)When you?re done ? go back to audioboo, and upload the file using their uploader. Copy and paste the link to your audioboo, and post it in the thread on stepfinder.

3) If you?re using a laptop you can record your voice straight onto audioboo. Start off with the issue you want to talk about, and then drill down into some of the challenges. Lastly, address these challenges ? suggest how you might deal with them (or have dealt with them). Once you?re satisfied with the recording on audioboo, copy and paste the url to your recording and pop it in the thread on stepfinder!

Enjoy :)

Madly in Love - Day 3

Helen — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:56:57 GMT

Welcome to day three, the final day (for now, at least) and a culmination of all the hard work you've done so far. The top of the hill is in sight. :D

Having enjoyed going through all your persona words and images, it's clear that while everyone's story is individual and unique, when you describe the impact of mental illness on your relationships there is lots of shared experience.

While sharing these experiences can help you recognise that you're not alone and perhaps feel less isolated, we also suspect that you've seen some issues raised by others that you feel you'd be able to help them with. Maybe, at some point while reading, you've thought: "I remember feeling like that and I've got some suggestions for how they could deal with/could have dealt with it." Equally, maybe you've managed to gather some great insights into how to cope with some of your own issues - we accept with mental health issues that things don't just 'go away' but we learn to better manage situations, and become stronger for it. :)

So we're giving you the opportunity to do just that. Below is a list of areas that we'd like you to tackle in terms of providing peer support. Choose one of them and then check out the diagram below for an example of how we'd like to break down your advice.

How to make the most of a first date if you have anxiety

How to behave more like a girlfriend or boyfriend when you feel like a carer

How to help someone understand they can't 'cure' their boyfriend or girlfriend but can still support them.

How to find a balance in your social life and make positive decisions about it - knowing when it's best to stay in together and when it's worth going out.

How to talk about your problems comfortably, accept vulnerability and open up to others in relationships.

How to mend a broken heart

How to best provide encouragement to your partner when they're seeking treatment.

So, here comes a mindmap example of how you can present your advice:

As you can see - the key issue is at the top:

How do I talk about my partner with my friends

With related issues/barriers underneath (a few examples):

My partner has mental health difficulties such as social anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

My friends might just think my partner is crazy if I tell them about her mental health problems

They might think my partner is possessive

And so on...

The final boxes are the actual advice.

This mind map has been used creating https://bubbl.us/

If you feel you'd like to give this a try, then it's free and simple software that you can play with.

Here are some tips on using bubbl.us -

1) Click on Start Brainstorming.
2) Before you do anything, click on 'Create Account' in the top right of the page. Create an account so you can save your mind map.
3) In your first bubble, state the issue you want to talk about (a bit like the example above). You can then create ?child? bubbles which you can give more detailed information in. You can increase or decrease the size of the text by hovering over the bubble and clicking up/down on the text size indicator. You can also link your bubbles by using the ?connect? tool, and change the colour of your bubbles by using the colour tool.
4) Create as many child bubbles as you like, but make sure you?ve got a suggestion or piece of advice for the issues you talk about (once again, a little like the example above).
5) When you?re satisfied, you can click export near the top of the page. This will give you the option to export your file to an image or pdf and save it on your computer. Save it as an image file, so you can upload it to the stepfinder thread later.
6) When you?ve saved your image, head to the stepfinder thread and either save your image on a hosting site like Flickr, and then embed the link, or attach the file to your post.
7) Tada!

If you have your own ingenious way of presenting the advice in your own way, then as long as you're sure to include the key issues, barriers and suggested solutions, then you're free to go with your idea and present in this thread. (Uploads welcome).

Look forward to seeing your input :)

What to do

Guepheike — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:14:23 GMT

Hello. Do anyone know what is all about this cookie acceptation thing? Is it safe?

Thanks for answer

Madly in Love - Day 2

Helen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:54:58 GMT

The first day was all about your stories. :)

This second day is a chance to look at some existing content on TheSite and give us some feedback on how we might optimise (get the most out of) some of our most popular content that people are already finding in our relationships section.

So, we've identified ten articles (linked below) that receive the most views each month. What we'd like you to do is:

1. Pick 3 or 4 of the articles that stand out to you - whether it be because they relate to your experience right now or because in the past, you've wanted information on that topic.

2. Read the articles and provide feedback on the following elements:

a) What do you think about the tone of the article? (i.e. the language, phrasing and real quotes if there are any)

b) Grade the articles out of 10 - Then tell us why wouldn't you give the article 10/10? (What needs work) Why wouldn't you give the article 0/10? (What does work)

c) Is this article relevant/helpful for someone who is experiencing symptoms of mental illness? Would you add or change anything to address this? Be as creative as you like in your responses.

Here are the articles:

Making new friends
How to pull
Boost your pulling confidence
Flirting
Accepting it's over
I love my best friend
Falling for a friend
Long distance relationships
Dealing with arguments
Taking a break

As well as looking to update existing content, we're also interested in identifying areas that we haven't touched on before or that should definitely be covered with more of a mental health angle. Your personas are definitely going to help with this. We've also already had conversations with TheSite Leaders (our network of young people who regular consult on developments) and we'd like you to rate their ideas using the following criteria:

1. Scarcity of information - do you know if there is already relevant information on this topic covered on other websites? If yes, how is it covered and should is it relevant to young people? If you don't think there is anything on this already available, is it needed urgently in your opinion?

2.Relevance online Is this an issue that can be covered effectively online? If no, why not? If yes, how would you like to see it tackled? e.g. a personal story, an interview, advice from others who've been in that situation etc.

We don't need you to rate ALL of these - as they've been pretty forthcoming with ideas. If you could vote for your top 5 in the attached poll (scroll right back up to the top, it's above the title of the thread) and then see how many you can rate in 30 minutes based on the criteria above. :)

Here are the ideas they've put forward:

-Self-love
-Self-awareness
-Moving on from a bad relationship
-Being single and feeling nervous about relationships
-Feeling pressure to be in a couple and making bad choices

Sex
- Medication and sex drive

Couples
-How to talk if you're unwell
-How to react if your partner is unwell
-Plans & routines
-At what point do you talk about issues in a relationship?
-Expecting the unexpected
-Understanding triggers
-Support if your partner is experiencing a mental health issue
-Positive stories/experiences
-Understanding 'tough love' - why is someone saying something that feels hurtful to be kind.
-Explaining previous self-harm to your partner (why you've got scars, for example)
-Recognising that you can't take responsibility for someone else's choices.
-Breaking up with someone because you feel like you're a burden
-Being able to trust your current partner in a relationship if you feel like you were betrayed in the past.
- the loss of a loved one (e.g. one leaders friend lost her boyfriend in a car accident when they were 17).

I haven't been able to fit all of these in one poll, so we can create a second for the final day.

As ever, drop me a line if you need help or clarification on anything.

Thanks :)

Madly in Love - Day 1 reflection

Helen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:48:37 GMT

Hi again :)

Before we crack on with the next task, we wanted to give you the opportunity to reflect on the first days work. I'm really blown away by your efforts and hope you got something out of creating the personas. So, here are a few questions that we'd like you to ponder...

1) How did you find the experience of creating the persona? e.g. did it make you feel any particular emotions? How did you find it in a practical sense - e.g. a change from usual kind of activity? Difficult? Easy? etc...

2) How did you feel looking at other people's designs - did you learn anything or have any particular feelings about them?

3) What kind of support do you have access to at the moment for some of the issues you raise in your persona? We can use this space to help you explore some further options if you're feeling at a loss at the moment.

Madly in Love - Day 1

Helen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:10:49 GMT

Hello and thanks for signing up for our online workshop for the development of 'Madly in Love'. :)

My Name's Helen, I'm Engagement & Support Manager at YouthNet and there's a chance you already know me from here, here, or maybe even here. Feel free to ask me any questions :)

Madly in Love is an Innovation Labs project that was designed by young people with support from Comic Relief, Paul Hamlyn Founation and the Mental Health Foundation.

What we're working towards creating is a unique section of TheSite that people looking for information and advice about relationships and mental health will benefit from.

We already have a sex & relationships section on TheSite. And a mental health section

So how do we go about bringing them together to address the overlap with the issues, making sure we're up to date on the most relevant issues, are easy to find and appealing to relevant people?

This is the challenge you're helping us with. :)

At this stage, it would be great if you could tell us a bit about yourself - what brings you to this workshop and what do you hope to gain from it?

Secondly, we'd like you to create a persona relating to this project. For this workshop, this can be defined as: A summary of the characteristics, needs and experiences of a key user of Madly in Love

The persona can be yourself, a friend you know very well (but please respect their anonymity by leaving out info that might identify them unless you've cleared it with them) or perhaps someone you're currently/have previously been in a relationship with. TheSite often gets more input on females than males - so if you're a guy, then ideally you'll be creating one for yourself or another male.

The areas to cover in the persona are:

First name:

� Age:
� Location (City/town)
� Status � e.g. employed, student, unemployed etc
� Time period of relationship with dates e.g. Relationship with Mark (boyfriend) Spring 2010-Summer 2012 or Relationship with Sue (Friend) Summer 2009-present
� The most significant event in the relationship
� Mental health symptoms experienced
� Main impact of mental health symptoms on relationship
� Highs in the relationship
� Lows in the relationship
If you want to add any additional things, then feel free! Like I said � you can also use symbols or other drawings alongside any written info.

Ideally, we'd like for you to draw your persona and then take a photo of it and upload it in this thread. Here are some examples we've sourced in advance to inspire you:

If you get stuck, or are worried about any aspect of this task, then don't hesitate to drop me a line via email.

I look forward to seeing your personas up between now and Wednesday :cool:

Article: Review of the new NHS health apps library

__elledee — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:50:06 GMT

You can view the page at http://www.thesite.org/stepfinder/co...h-apps-library