When the Duchess of Cambridge takes over as guest editor for The Huffington Post UK on Wednesday, 17 February, she will focus on behavioural and emotional problems in children.
In a post published on The Huffington Post UK’s website late Friday night, Dr. Harold Koplewicz discusses the Duchess’s focus and outlines why children’s mental health is an important issue for everyone to understand and support.
“We need resources and more specialists with expertise to make care more available. We need more and better research to create the treatments of tomorrow. But a lot of what we need starts with you and me, in our personal acceptance and honesty and openness in talking about mental illness with our families, our friends, and with other parents who may be struggling,” he writes.
The Duchess of Cambridge has focused on the mental health of children in her work, championing the cause through work with her patronages, including Place2Be, whom she recently partnered with to release a video in honour of Children’s Mental Health Week.
In November 2015, she gave a highly-regarded speech about the importance of mental health at a Place2Be conference, and why she chose to focus on that area.
“Imagine if everyone was able to help just one child who needs to be listened to, needs to be respected, and needs to be loved – we could make such a huge difference for an entire generation,”
When the project was announced in January, Stephen Hull, the editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post UK said, “…Dealing with mental health issues has been a major editorial focus for us and I’m very excited to be working together on such an important project.”
The Duchess will “highlight the inspiring work being done by parents, teachers, researchers, and mental health professionals around the country,” according to a Kensington Palace spokesperson.
The Huffington Post team will set up office in Kensington Palace for that day, working closely with the Duchess from her London home. It marks the first time the Duchess has worked with a media organization so closely.
