Introducing ‘Heads Together’ — The Mental Health Charity

Most people will suffer from a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.

It may be a short period of anxiety or stress caused by a traumatic event or a more serious mental illness that requires hospitalisation.

The best way to deal with these kinds of problems is to talk to a friend or family member, or to seek professional help.

This ensures that you get the emotional support and treatment required to get better.

Unfortunately, there is still a stigma associated with mental illness in the United Kingdom which prevents some people from getting the help they need.

This has led to some people hiding their mental illness from others or self medicating with alcohol and drugs.

This can exacerbate the problem and lead to unforeseen consequences for a person’s health.

Campaigns like Heads Together are working hard to remove the stigma of mental illness and to help people access the treatment they need.

Heads Together is a mental health awareness initiative led by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry.

It challenges the stereotypes associated with mental health, changing the conversation and helping people deal with mental illness in a safe way.

When was Heads Together created?

Heads Together is a relatively new campaign that was created in 2016.

It was launched by Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry, who are all prominent advocates for mental health awareness.

The primary goal of the Heads Together campaign is to remove any stigma associated with mental health.

The campaign encourages people to freely talk about their mental health without the fear of being criticised, looked down upon, or judged unfairly.

This will encourage everyone to share any thoughts, feelings, and concerns relating to their mental health.

The campaign was created after Kate Middleton realised that so much of the charity work performed by royals was related to mental health in some way.

As Kate mentioned during an interview:

“It was the common thread, wasn’t it. Mental health seemed to run between all of the different areas we were working in, so whether it’s homelessness, military, or addition and bereavement”.

By acting on the common thread of mental health, the royals hope to make positive changes in many areas of society.

Heads Together uses eight charity partners and 3 funding partners to raise and distribute money.

All activities are designed to change public opinion about mental health issues and to fund some innovative new mental health services.

Shortly after Head Together was formed, they obtained data from YouGov and The Data Science Institute to understand what people are saying about mental health issues in the UK.

They discovered that:

• 42% of respondents said they found talking about the mental health helpful
• 83% of people have recently had a conversation about their own mental health
• 51% of people found talking about mental health easy, but 37% found it hard

The campaign hopes to improve these figures over the coming years.

Heads Together works with a wide cross-section of people in the United Kingdom, helping both the people vulnerable to mental illness and those helping them.

They have focussed on various segments of the population including young people, emergency response workers, homeless charities, and veterans.

What activities is Heads Together involved in?

Heads Together has been involved in a wide range of activities including:

Fundraising

By 2017, the campaign had already raised more than £7 million.

This money will be used primarily for funding awareness campaigns.

Forming links with other support groups

Heads Together has already formed links with more than 1,000 support groups across the UK.

These groups range from support services for young people to organisations that help emergency service workers.

Mental health marathon

Heads Together was the 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon Charity of the Year.

This event gave the campaign enormous media coverage and raised awareness of mental health issues.

Mental health videos

The campaign has create a series of videos which feature people openly discussing their mental health.

Some of these videos have featured celebrities like Lady Gaga.

You can view all of their videos here.

Mental health social media campaigns

There have been dozens of social media campaigns launched by Heads Together to promote the campaign and to educate the general public.

So far, more than 5.1 million people have liked, watched, shared, or commented on social media posts by Heads Together.

Promotion in the media

Heads Together has already generated more than 59,000 conversations in the media, including thousands of in-depth articles discussing mental health.

These articles, comments, blog posts, and videos help to normalise discussions about mental health.

School campaigns

The campaign is teaching children about mental health and encouraging them to be open about their thoughts and feelings.

To learn more about Heads Together, visit their webpage or YouTube channel.