The Prince and Princess of Wales began a week of engagements related to World Mental Health Day in Birmingham on Tuesday, hosting a youth forum with their Royal Foundation.
William and Catherine joined forces with BBC 1 Radio and The Mix, a youth organization in Birmingham, to host ‘Exploring our Emotional Worlds’.
Catherine told the young people gathered that mental health is something she and William are both passionate about, and that “Today, more people feel empowered to talk about their mental health than ever before. This is a major step forward.”
Joining the royals were 100 young people nominated by mental health and youth charities, as well as other experts in the field to bring together solutions and ideas on ways to improve the conversation around mental health.
“It is important, however, to remind ourselves of the big picture as we meet here today. What are we trying to improve by focusing our efforts on mental health? Ultimately, we are working to build a happier, healthier world. We want to shape fairer, safer, kinder, more equal societies – societies that seek the common good and a better future together,” Catherine said.
“For just as we need to restore, protect, and invest in our planet, so we must also restore, protect, and invest in the communities, relationships and people living on it. We believe that starts with you, our young people, but it also means all of us. Because when you think about it, we can each shape the world in which we live.”
The royals joined at the Factory Works centre, with Catherine taking part an ‘Understanding Our Emotions’ group to talk about emotions and play a guessing game to figure out which secret emotions each person was describing.
“We can choose to see our emotional worlds and mental wellbeing in a different light, we can normalise it and recognise it as something we all have, and require, as human beings,” Catherine said. “Together, let’s build a brighter, more resilient future.”
Meanwhile, William joined a panel discussion to talk about concrete action in the mental health sphere, saying that “We feel we made some progress in that we are in this room talking about mental health, and we are chipping away at that stigma but there is a lot more to do.”
He added: “I think concrete action some sort of tangibility to come forwards is the idea of where we’d like to see the space go next. So really today, particularly for me up here, is to hear from all you guys in the room, is about what is it that bothers you that affects your mental health, what do you want to see changed.
“I need to listen and learn from you guys, you are at the stage in your life where there are a number of pressures on you, there are a number of concerns and to help us work, what we do next is to hear from you guys.”
Their engagement in Birmingham is just the beginning for the royal couple, who will carry out further engagements this week in honour of World Mental Health Week.
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