Queen Máxima talks to students in Leiden about mental health
How do you know if your idea has succeeded? The Queen coming to call a year and a half later might just be a clue. This happened to the Leiden student foundation ‘Door Het Geluid’, which promotes student well-being.
Who would have thought it? You and a few friends devise a plan at the kitchen table and carry it out, and a year and a half later Queen Máxima is coming to call. That is exactly what happened to Tess Franken, a Public Administration student from Leiden. She was concerned about mental illness and suicide among students, and felt that students don’t talk about this enough with each other. The ‘Door Het Geluid’ foundation was the result.
The foundation offers mental health workshops, for and by students, based on examples from student life. The initiative snowballed: 72 student ambassadors in seven cities now give the workshops.
‘Door Het Geluid’ works closely with the ‘MIND US’ foundation, which also focuses on mental health problems in the young. And the honorary president of ‘MIND US’ just happens to be called Queen Máxima.
Now, on Tuesday 2 September, she has come to Leiden, the place where it all started, to find out more about ‘Door Het Geluid’ and to attend a workshop. The location? The Academy Building, the university’s beating heart.
Support from workshops
The Queen begins by talking to representatives from ‘Door Het Geluid’, ‘MIND US’, Njord rowing association, the Municipality of Leiden, Leiden University and University of Applied Sciences Leiden. It becomes clear once again how often students are confronted with the death by suicide of a fellow student.
The success of the workshops and the support students derive from them is overwhelming. But more money is needed to continue the foundation. Another problem is how difficult it is to reach students who do not belong to a student association.
‘University is supposed to be the best days of your life. But that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to talk about the less fun aspects.’
Best days of your life?
Then it is time for a ‘Door Het Geluid’ workshop. The Queen takes a seat in a circle of students who are discussing loneliness. ‘People often say that university is the best days of your life’, says workshop leader Joppe Sorber. ‘But that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to talk about the less fun aspects.’
Almost in unison, the participating students list what they found difficult at the start of these best days of their lives. Suddenly having to look after yourself, build a social network, cope without your parents and get into a completely different routine. ‘All of these can cause feelings of loneliness’, says second workshop leader Renske van Elderen.
Loneliness is also the subject of the next example: How can you help a friend who doesn’t go and socialise at the association you both belong to or is struggling to get to know people? The group offers suggestions. ‘Arrange to go to the cinema together.’ ‘Go to the association together and help them get to know people.’ These may seem obvious but they make for a lively discussion, with Queen Máxima joining in.
Hard nuts to crack
At the end, the Queen speaks to student ambassadors from different cities. They discuss some more hard nuts to crack: the role of student associations and alcohol consumption, for example. The boards of large associations should do much more to prevent alcohol abuse and unacceptable behaviour is the consensus at the table.
Cheering
Then it is time for the Queen to leave. The last photos are taken and the last hands shaken. Once the car has left, Tess goes back inside, to ‘her’ ambassadors. Cheers ring out: everything has gone perfectly.
‘It’s so incredibly cool that she cares so much about student well-being and is drawing attention to this initiative with this visit’, Tess beams afterwards. ‘I’m so proud! We were ourselves and managed to explain why we find this topic so important. Tomorrow it’ll be business and workshops as usual.
‘We want to focus more on mental health online this year. Our online campaign ‘#FF Inchecken’ last summer, when universities and associations were closed, encouraged students to ask each other how they are more often. The response was incredible, so we are continuing it.’
And with all this work, does she still have time to do fun things herself? ‘I meet up with friends, do really fun things and have great conversations’, she laughs. ‘So no need to worry about me!’
Text: Jan Joost Aten
Photos: Robin Utrecht