Why Kate Middleton is committed to defending children’s mental health

“Our children’s mental health should be considered just as important as their physical health.” It was 2016 when Kate Middleton wrote these words in an article signed as Guest Editor for Huffington Post UK.

“William and I are adamant that we would not hesitate to ask for expert support for George and Charlotte if they needed it,” the then Duchess of Cambridge had also declared, in an Instagram post of the same year.

Years have passed but commitment to certain issues by Kate Middleton, now Princess of Wales and mother, as well as by George and Charlotte, also by Louis (born in 2018), does not seem to have changed at all. On the contrary.

There children’s health, both psychologically and emotionallyhas in fact always been the theme closest to the heart of the Princess of Wales, as evidenced by the many initiatives she has promoted in recent years and the projects she has carried out.

Just recently, as he reports Peopleon the occasion of Mental Health Awareness Week 2023Princess Kate paid a visit to theAnna Freud Centrethe charity of which he has been a patron since 2016.

During her visit, the Princess participated in panel discussions with experts discussing with them the theme chosen for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, namely that ofanxiety. Kate Middleton she also joined a class lesson together with the students, based on animated video Let’s talk about anxiety, a resource aimed at early secondary school children, designed to help them understand that anxiety is a normal emotion and to offer them the best advice for dealing with it.

Mental health, Kate Middleton against stigma

Seeing Kate Middleton so comfortable in dealing with these issues is certainly not new. Together with her husband William and her brother-in-law Harry, the Princess of Wales also carried on in 2017 the countryside Heads Together, promoted in partnership with the Anna Freud Center and seven other charities, with the aim of change the national conversation about mental health, breaking down the stigma and raising people’s awareness on this issue.

Just to collect the legacy of the Heads Together campaign, Kate Middleton also launched in 2018 Mentally Healthy Schoolsa free website specifically designed to offer primary school teachers reliable and practical resources to facilitate support for pupils’ mental health and well-being. The site is managed by the Anna Freud Center but also by other important ones children’s mental health charities.

Between these, Place2Be, an organization that has been providing mental health services in schools for nearly 30 years and has been a Royal Patron since 2013 – of course – just the unstoppable Kate Middleton. In fact, the wife of the heir to the throne of England had a central role alongside Place2Be to launch the first Children’s Mental Health Weekthe week dedicated to the mental health of the little ones.

The importance of investing in the first 5 years of life

But the Anna Freud Center and Place2Be are not the only realities through which the Princess of Wales carries out her commitment in the field of child mental health. In fact, in 2021 Kate Middleton launched what is perhaps her most ambitious project: the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood, the foundation dedicated to study of the first five years of childhood.

“My journey into understanding the importance of early childhood actually started with adults, not children,” Princess Kate explained in a video on the Kensington Royal Instagram page – “It was about prevention. I wanted to understand what we could do more to help prevent some of today’s toughest societal challenges and what more could we have done about the rising rates of mental ill health. I spoke with psychiatrists, neuroscientists, practitioners and academics and parents at the same time, and what has become clear is that the best investment in our future health and happiness is in the first five years of life which is why I launched the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood today.”

Kate’s attention to the world of childhood, therefore, seems to go far beyond what could be the simple sensitivity of a mother. Promote the full well-being of children it is in fact for the Princess a fundamental theme on a social level, also from a prevention perspective, because it represents the best way to invest in the future of the company.

An investment that must start from early childhoodas Kate herself explained in a video posted some time ago on the Instagram page of the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood, on the occasion of the campaign launch Shaping Us.

“Our early childhood, the time from pregnancy to the age of five, model basically the rest of our life» explains the Princess. “But as a society we currently spend much more time and energy on the future life. Today, the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood is launching a new campaign, Shaping Usto increase awareness of the impact that building a supportive and welcoming world can have on life around children and those who take care of them».

An obvious concept? Maybe not so much.

Indeed, in 2020, the Royal Foundation commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a research study aimed at investigating the point of view of British society on early childhood. The results of this survey, compiled by more than 500,000 people, have been shared in #5BigInsights. From what has emerged there would be a tendency to underestimate the impact of the early years. Only the 31% of parents of children aged 0 to 5 years indeed he recognized the importance of the first five years of life for health and happiness in adulthood.

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