EPALE - Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe

As part of the Erasmus + project Breaking Taboos about Mental Health, Les Apprimeurs is running a series of workshops called Des bulles dans ta tête. The aim of these workshops is to break down stereotypes and prejudices relating to mental health, through co-authoring an interactive digital comic strip.

On Saturday 1 June 2024, Julie Guilleminot, President of Les Apprimeurs, ran a one-day session alongside Solène Rousseau, a Mental Health First Aid trainer at Cercle J in Rosny-sous-Bois. Eight young people aged 16 to 25 took part in the day-long event, hosted by Mina Mathieu, clinical psychologist and head of youth at Cercle J Arthur Rimbaud, and Quentin Fevre, project manager at the Youth Information Centre.

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A morning devoted to raising young people’s awareness of mental health issues.

After going through the objectives of the workshop and introducing themselves in turn, the participants attended the first session, entitled “Myths and realities about mental health”. The aim was to identify the prejudices that exist, understand how our perception can be influenced and look at the ‘official’ definition of mental health. Participants worked in pairs, and were assigned a comic strip produced as part of the Breaking Taboos project. Their task was to give the comic strip a title to identify the myth/prejudice at work in the scenario, and to identify how they would respond in the character’s place, if they were in the same situation. 

The second workshop was devoted to various existing disorders and their definitions. As before, the participants were given a comic strip for which they had to find a title. They then identified which prejudice could be linked to the type of disorder in the comic strip and the definition they would give. 

The aim of the third workshop, “SMS / How to help”, was to clearly identify the main disorders and the most appropriate response. Participants were simply confronted with a short, fictitious text message conversation prepared in advance, to which they had to give a title and the most appropriate response. 

A comic strip creation session

Throughout the afternoon, the young participants had the opportunity to create their own digital comic strip based on scenarios they were free to imagine.

Jessy and Jimmy, who took part in the workshop, decided to write a comic strip on the theme of the way other people look at you and the consequences of judgements about physical appearance. A second pair chose to tackle the subject of alcohol. A third comic called “Missed meet-up” deals with how to react to someone who isolates themselves in an unusual way. Finally, the last two comics deal with our relationship with our bodies and the unease people can feel over their appearance, as well as the consequences on their mental well-being. 

After writing the script on paper, the participants formatted and illustrated the comic strips on the computer so that they could be made available online, on the project website of Breaking Taboos about Mental Health and on the website of Des bulles dans ta tête.

Success and comic book exhibition at Cercle J 

The participants at the Point Ecoute Jeune really enjoyed the workshop by Des bulles dans ta tête, particularly the sharing of ideas, the creative process, thinking about the message to be conveyed by the comic strip and explaining it to others afterwards. 

A few weeks after the workshop, Cercle J organised a “FEED - Forum Échange Écoute Découverte - spécial santé” evening for discovery, discussion and listening focusing on health, in the presence of local partners, during which the various comic strips produced were exhibited to the public.

To find out more about the European Breaking Taboos about Mental Health project, click here

To find out more about the Des bulles dans ta tête workshops, click here

[Translation : NSS EPALE France]