The Duchess of Cambridge has recorded a special message to mark the beginning of Children’s Mental Health Week.
In the video, which Kate filmed herself while on a run near Anmer Hall, she says: “This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is all about expressing yourself – about finding creative ways in which to share your thoughts, ideas and feelings. So whether that’s through photography, through art, through drama, through music or poetry – it’s finding those things that makes you feel good about yourself.
“And while this is Children’s Mental Health Week there has never been a more important time to talk about parental wellbeing and mental health too. Last year you told me just how important this was that many of us find it hard to prioritise. This is a hugely challenging time for us all so please look after yourself too. Find those ways in which to share your thoughts and your feelings or find someone to talk to because we really do need to be the very best versions of ourselves for the children in our care.”
Children’s Mental Health Week runs from 1-7 February and will be held under the theme ‘Express Yourself.’ Place2Be, one of Kate’s earliest patronages, launched the initiative in 2015 as a way to spotlight the importance of taking care of children’s mental health.
‘Express Yourself’ will encourage children, their parents and carers to find ways of creatively expressing themselves as a way to share and take care of their mental health. Place2Be notes that the theme “focuses on the creative ways children and adults can share feelings, thoughts or ideas through art, music, writing, poetry, dance, drama, photography and film, or just doing activities that make them feel good.”
Kensington Palace noted, in the caption for their video, that they “look forward to sharing more about the year’s theme of expressing yourself this week.”
Place2Be is a leading UK charity focusing on children’s mental health. In 2020, they worked with 700 schools and reached nearly 381,000 young people.
