Crown Princess Mary attended the People’s Movement Against Loneliness conference in Copenhagen this week, delivering an opening speech that touched upon how far the movement has come and how much work is still left to be done.
Crown Princess Mary, attending on behalf of the Mary Foundation, said in her opening speech: “Loneliness is often coupled with other mental health problems and social challenges. Whether a young person needs group therapy with like-minded people, a meeting place, a mentor or something else entirely depends on what the young person has with them.”
She added: “We want to give young people a course that is tailored to them. It can only be done because there are so many people throughout the country who work every day to create specialized efforts in this area.”
The People’s Movement Against Loneliness’s mission is on its official website: “We want to talk about loneliness, so that it is no longer taboo, and we want to help people meet, so that loneliness is broken. Our vision is that no one in Denmark should be affected by severe loneliness, and we hope that as many as possible will help make an extra effort.”
The conference was a joint effort with Mental Talk and aimed to “focus on what we as a society can do to reduce loneliness in Denmark,” according to Mental Talk’s official website.
The Mary Foundation shared on its official Instagram: “In the opening speech, the Crown Princess emphasized how far we’ve come with loneliness on the agenda, but that we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
“We still need knowledge and more tools to help people out of loneliness.
“Around 380,000 Danes experience serious loneliness. When loneliness bites, it can have major consequences for mental and physical health, but fortunately loneliness can be prevented and fought.”
Crown Princess Mary also revealed that the Mary Foundation is working on a new project that will help loneliness, saying, “Our new solitude project differs from our previous projects; instead of developing a new offer, we will develop a project that draws on and supports the good offers that already exist… that many of you sitting here represent.”
The Mary Foundation was founded in 2007 as a charitable organisation dedicated to three key areas: combatting loneliness, anti-bullying, and violence in the home. The foundation allows the Crown Princess a “unique opportunity to highlight important and overlooked issues and gather the right people for new, innovative solutions,” according to its official website.
