Film series invites young people to reflect on and care for their mental health

São Paulo (Brazil) — The Cactus Institute and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute are launching the campaign “Have you ever felt this?”, a series of educational films on adolescent and youth mental health. The campaign is part of White January, a month dedicated in Brazil to awareness-raising, the promotion of care, and the expansion of public dialogue on mental health, and is available on YouTube and on the organizations’ social media channels.

Produced by Maranha Filmes, the video series — with an average length of five minutes — combines cinematic aesthetics, dramaturgy, and technical explanation to address key youth mental health topics in a responsible and accessible way. In total, five episodes focus on anxiety, depression, eating disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and self-harm, with an emphasis on recognizing symptoms, accessing reliable information, and encouraging the search for support.

The films star actress Duda Pimenta, known for her roles in As Aventuras de Poliana and Poliana Moça, as well as productions for platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. The dramatized scenes are accompanied by commentary from psychologist Mari Luz, who helps put into words what is being experienced and felt, translates warning signs in an accessible way for parents and caregivers, and reinforces the importance of care and help-seeking.

Psychologist Mari Luz explains what the youth feels and provide tips on how to deal with it

This launch speaks directly to the principles of White January by expanding the public debate on mental health and offering content that contributes to prevention, support, and stigma reduction. In a context marked by the circulation of superficial or inaccurate information about mental health on social media, “Have you ever felt this?” seeks to provide technical, contextualized, and safe content, using language that is accessible to adolescents and young people.

An urgent issue

According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, affiliated with the University of Washington, around one in seven adolescents aged 10 to 19 lives with a mental health disorder. In addition, the World Health Organization notes that half of all mental health conditions begin before the age of 14, yet most cases are neither detected nor treated — making childhood and adolescence critical windows for preventive action.

Despite the relevance of these data, an important limitation remains: in many contexts, the information underpinning studies is either unavailable or outdated, as highlighted by a systematic review involving researchers from the Child Mind Institute, published in The Lancet.

It is within this context that the campaign “Have you ever felt this?” stands out by expanding access to information and encouraging help-seeking through an innovative approach to language and format. The series places particular emphasis on the use of trends, dynamics, and viral formats on social media to capture the attention of adolescents aged 13 to 17, bringing the content closer to their everyday digital culture and facilitating identification with the situations portrayed.

In each video, viewers are provided with information about free and confidential support channels, such as Pode Falar and Centro de Valorização da Vida (CVV), reinforcing the campaign’s commitment to responsible, ongoing care that is connected to contemporary forms of youth communication.

“This series is rooted in our commitment to translating scientific knowledge into content that truly resonates with the lives of Brazilian adolescents and those who care for them. Talking about mental health in an accessible, responsible, and evidence-based way is essential to reducing stigma, promoting early recognition of warning signs, and strengthening pathways of care that are genuinely effective and sensitive to Brazil’s multiple realities,” says Carolina Costa, Brazil Manager of the SNF Global Center.

Maria Fernanda Quartiero, Founder and CEO of Instituto Cactus, emphasizes that partnerships like this one are strategic for expanding adolescents’ and young people’s access to reliable mental health information and for strengthening a closer, more responsible dialogue with this audience. For her, “by bringing together different organizations, forms of knowledge, and languages, we are able to reach young people in the spaces they already occupy and contribute to awareness-raising, stigma reduction, and the building of a culture in which talking about mental health and seeking help is natural and safe.”

All videos are available on Instituto Cactus’s official YouTube channel, in collaboration with the Juntô channel. Please watch them.

About Instituto Cactus

Instituto Cactus is a philanthropic, human-rights-based, non-profit, and independent organization that works to expand and strengthen Brazil’s mental health ecosystem. Its work focuses on care, disease prevention, and the promotion of mental health, with a primary emphasis on two groups: women and adolescents. The organization operates through strategic grantmaking and advocacy, prioritizing projects, actions, and initiatives that consistently contribute to the development and delivery of mental health solutions and tools, as well as generating evidence and fostering innovation in psychosocial care across the country.

About the SNF Global Center

The SNF Global Center brings together the Child Mind Institute’s expertise as a leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)’s deep commitment to supporting collaborative projects to improve access to quality health care worldwide. The center is building partnerships to drive advances in under-researched areas of children and adolescents’ mental health, and expand access to culturally appropriate training, resources, and treatment in low- and middle-income countries. This work is conducted by the Child Mind Institute with support from SNF through its Global Health Initiative (GHI).

About the Child Mind Institute

The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders by giving them the help they need. We’ve become the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health by providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.