On Wednesday June 9, Vinod Subramaniam, rector magnificus of the VU Amsterdam, opened a new @ease location at Uilenstede, a place where students can go to if life isn’t going so well. VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam Public Health and student housing DUWO collaborated in making this new location possible.

@ease is a place where students can go to when they have something on their mind. @ease is free, anonymous and without a waiting list. Young volunteers work together with professionals from different local organizations to provide a sympathetic ear. This help is very easily accessible, which is greatly appreciated by the youth.

The topics of the conversations can be very different: being hart broken, eating habits, study problems, feeling depressed or financial problems.

75% of the psychological symptoms start before the age of 25. Even though we have a good health care system, only 20% of the youth with psychological symptoms get the right help. A lot of people are ashamed of their problems and therefore they ask for help too late. @ease is trying to solve this problem.

Every Thursday from 15:00 to 18:00 hrs. students can walk in without an appointment. @ease Uilenstede can be found in ‘de Kas, Uilenstede 346B’.

Watch the movie about @ease or go to the @ease website for more information .