Welcome

WELCOME LETTER FROM OUR CHAIRMAN

This year is the Trust’s 25th anniversary. Have things improved over those 25 years, or is the mental health crisis we read so much about today a sign that things have in fact got a whole lot worse? The statistics and surveys do suggest that young people have more mental health issues today than they did 25 years ago. This has led to talk of them facing a mental health “crisis” or “tsunami” of mental health problems. This unguarded use of hyperbolic language strikes me as unhelpful, especially for our children.

There is to my mind a more positive narrative that often gets overlooked: the young of today are more willing to talk openly about illnesses such as depression, better at spotting signs of depression in themselves and their friends and more willing to seek help when needed. I have heard many stories about young people rallying around a struggling friend or promptly alerting parents or teachers to a potential problem which is then resolved. This is real progress. The young are so much further ahead in terms of their engagement with mental health than their counterparts of 25 years ago. Of the 65 runners who have just run the Cambridge Half Marathon for the Trust, many were students or just in work. These young runners understand so much more about depression and how to deal with it than previous generations. This bodes well for the future. We have many exciting projects in the pipeline at the Trust including working with children in schools around resilience. A combination of resilience and informed kindness will stand our young in good stead to weather the storms ahead.

I would like to say a huge thank you to two outgoing trustees, Charlie’s uncle Robert Beaumont and Professor Roz Shafran, whose contribution to the Trust over the years has been immense. They will both be missed on the board, but thankfully they are both going to remain very much involved with our work – and on page 23 you can read a review of a new book co-authored by Roz, ‘How to Cope When Your Child Can’t’.

As I said at the outset, this is the Trust’s 25th year. Our passion to improve the mental health and wellbeing in our young burns as fiercely today as it did when the Trust was founded all those years ago round our kitchen table. Many of you have been with us on this journey from the outset. Others have joined us along the way. Together, we can and will make young lives better. RICHARD WALLER QC, CHAIRMAN