Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry have joined forces and are inspiring the masses to assist in eradicating the negative stigma that is often attached to mental health. The Heads Together campaign was launched by the three royals and each have done their part to appear at numerous events to get the conversation started about the issue of mental health in children and adults. Most recently, news has been reported that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with Prince Harry, are launching a film series on the subject. Harper’s Bazaar relays the details about the latest project the young royals are focusing on.
“Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry are launching a film series that encourages people to talk about about their mental health. The series, called #oktosay, showcases real people in the moment they first opened up to someone about their mental health struggles.The project is a part of their work with Heads Together, a royal campaign that fights to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and supports young people, the homeless and veterans, who are struggling with their psychological well being.”
The film focuses on a number of public figures who express their own struggles with mental health issues, such as depression and bi-polar disorder. The series can be found at the Heads Together YouTube page. Figures involved within the films include model Adwoa Aboah. The publication shares that “Adwoa Aboah and her mother discuss her attempted suicide and how she coped with depression and bipolar disorder.” Additionally the films feature soccer player Rio Ferdinand, who shares about the devastation he experienced when he lost his wife in 2015 to breast cancer.
Kate, William and Harry release powerful film series for @heads_together mental health campaign https://t.co/IXszGbzi61 pic.twitter.com/AXs2IGwQEs
— Yahoo Style UK (@YahooStyleUK) March 30, 2017
Ruby Wax and her husband also are filmed speaking about struggles with mental illness and what others can do to help those struggling. The obvious theme is to talk about it and not to hide your struggles. For too long, mental illness has been dismissed and considered an illness that is almost taboo, yet the royal trio are helping to rid people of this sort of perception and to speak out about their own struggles.
The films movingly portray those involved chatting with a loved one or confidant in their life whom they had first opened up to about their mental health issues.
The royals are doing a wonderful job with their campaign and are seeking to completely shatter any stigma that remains regarding mental health, as the Sun has noted. Statistics determined by studies done by those involved in the campaign suggest that nearly half of those questioned about mental health, admitted to suffering from mental health issues, as the publication shares.
“Heads Together commissioned a YouGov poll which found nearly half (46 per cent) of 5,003 adults, questioned in February, have talked recently about mental health, with a quarter chatting about their own psychological problems.”
Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Prince Harry have kept quite busy with their various royal duties and doing their part to ensure that the Heads Together campaign results in a change of perception, and their personal lives have also been active. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are preparing for a move to London later on this year after spending the first years as a married couple and parents in Norfolk at Anmer Hall. The move is reportedly happening so that the pair can begin taking over more royal duties from Queen Elizabeth, seeing as she is now in her 90th year.
Britain’s young royal’s campaign, Heads Together, promotes conversation on mental health. https://t.co/RKjkHUP6ts pic.twitter.com/Aye3jw70Pw
— CP24 (@CP24) March 30, 2017
Prince Harry has also been busy with his various duties and has been enjoying a relatively new romance with Suits actress Meghan Markle, who is also a humanitarian.
The princes and Kate shared a statement recently about their hopes for the campaign and for the films that were recently launched.
“When you realise that mental health problems affect your friends, neighbours, children and spouses, the walls of judgment and prejudice around these issues begin to fall. And we all know that you cannot resolve a mental health issue by staying silent. Attitudes to mental health are at a tipping point.We hope these films show people how simple conversations can change the direction of an entire life.”
[Featured Image by Oli Scarff/Getty Images]
