The Princess of Wales has been promoting Mental Health Awareness Week by talking to young people about their emotional struggles.
This week (May 15th to 21st) marks Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 from the Mental Health Foundation, with this year’s theme focused on anxiety.
As teens and young adults face lots of life pressures, such as exams, starting a new job and leaving home, Kate Middleton visited some school pupils to address some of the issues teenagers face these days.
She spoke with students from St Katherine’s School in Bristol with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, which provides coaching and mentoring for young people from world-famous athletes.
The aim of the charity is to give teens the skills and confidence they need at difficult points in their lives, particularly as they are about to come to many crossroads in their journey to becoming adults.
Pupils at St Katherine’s School are taking part in the On Track To Achieve programme, which is being led by Paralympic gold medallist Liz Johnson.
They told the princess that working with the athlete has improved their ability to express emotions, be more resilient and understand ways to boost positive their mental health.
Dame Kelly Holmes, who launched the charity in 2018, also spoke at the event.
She said: “I believe strongly that every young person should have the chance to be the best version of themselves.”
“To do that they need confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and this is the core of everything we do at my charity,” the retired middle distance runner stated.
The princess was keen to hear how the charity’s strategy of setting students up with an athlete mentor helps their mental health, including making them feel empowered, taking care of their wellbeing, and learning what they are capable of.
Dame Kelly Holmes and Kate Middleton were also joined by reality TV star Zara McDermott, who is one of the Shaping Us champions.
This is the princess’ campaign to raise awareness of how important the first five years of a person’s life is. It claims that everyone working together to create a more nurturing world around babies, toddlers and preschoolers can “make a huge difference to the physical and mental health and happiness of generations to come”.
It could even mean the next generation do not suffer from anxiety as much as previous ones, which is the focus of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week.
The campaign revealed 73 per cent of Brits have felt anxious in the preceding fortnight, while one in five feel anxious nearly all of the time.
It also found single parents are most likely to suffer from anxiety, with 89 per cent admitting they have felt anxious during the last two weeks.
This is the same as LGBTQ+ people, followed by young people aged between 18 and 34 (86 per cent), carers and people from ethnic minorities (84 per cent), and those with long-term physical health conditions (82 per cent).
Anyone who suffers from anxiety knows how debilitating it can be, which is why seeing a counsellor in a West London therapy room can help them cope with their feelings better.