I never thought that I would be a mental
health campaigner and like many other
campaigners sadly this came from
personal tragedy for me it was losing my
brother Ben Ben was 18 years old he was
the most incredible person I will ever
meet he was a fashion student creative
talented utterly charming and loved by
everyone he met in 2010 he suffered with
three months of severe depression just
three months in that time his mental
health really deteriorated he was
sectioned he was put into an adult
mental health unit and we saw him worsen
really really quickly
we felt the environment was really
unsuitable for him they didn’t
understand him and they didn’t know how
to care for him on the 20th of December
2010 my brother took his own life as a
family where Ben had been the light
there was a lot of darkness it was two
days before my 17th birthday I didn’t
know what had happened and I didn’t know
what happened so quickly I’m not gonna
go into what grief felt like but it was
a very very dark time for our family and
one of confusion a few days later my mum
who’d been a real pillar of strength
throughout this time got together with
our family and said I want to set up a
charity in Ben’s memory we all agreed
something had to change we didn’t know
how to run a charity and we worked it
out day by day but we did know that
things had to change we didn’t know
enough about mental health Ben didn’t
know enough about what he was going
through and the services which were
ultimately supposed to keep him safe had
failed him we were just one grieving
family but we felt like if we could even
make a small difference than we should
in January 2011 we set up our charity we
muddled through we learnt how to become
trustees and keep our accounts and
register with the Commission and we
built something all we knew is that we
wanted to raise our voice we wanted to
tell Ben
story we wanted to tell our story and we
wanted young people to know about mental
health to be aware of it before there
was mental illness we felt like if we
could just help one person in Ben’s
honor then we would have done what we’d
set out to do if you fast forward from
2011 to now seven years on and lots
changed in that time as a family we
fought tirelessly and campaigned a lot
and we’ve reached milestones that we
never expected were possible alongside
that the national conversation has
really really opened up over the last
few years mental health has hit the
headlines there has been extensive
coverage of mental health some good some
not so good
things like campaigns and documentaries
celebrities and the raw foundation have
really helped bring it onto the agenda
and it really has helped to smash some
stigma but despite this conversation the
services haven’t followed we’re still
faced with tragic statistics and
statistics our lives young lives in this
country if you’re a male and you’re aged
between 20 and 49 suicide is the leading
cause of death if you’re a female from
age 20 to 34 suicide is the leading
cause of death above all of the accident
and illness and yet mental health care
gets 13% of the NHS budget and youth
mental health care gets even less and we
know how important youth mental health
care is in 2012 the Royal College of
Psychiatrists found that 50% of adult
mental health issues presented before
the age of 14 75 percent before the
early twenties so it makes the best
sense to pour energy and funding into
adolescent mental health care because
not only will you create healthier and
happier young people but you’re also
investing in their quality of life and
their life chances we know this and yet
we don’t do it our services are severely
underfunded the waiting lists are
terrifying so we know that we need to
fund services
and we need to prioritize it when we’re
budgeting for the NHS but I think we can
do better than that I think we can go
further than that I think we should
reshape and rebrand adolescent mental
health services and modernize them to
actually work for the young people that
we’re trying to help the last seven
years for me have been something of a
crash course in Mental Health Awareness
I’ve learnt so much I’ve met so many
people and I’ve listened to so many
stories I’m by no means have the answers
but there’s three key ideas that have
been shared with me that I really want
to share with you and I think they’re
crucial to progress with Adolescent
Mental Health from prevention and
awareness right through to acute care
the first one of those is branding why
is a brand so important well for young
people it really is if we want young
people to be getting in touch with
services early when they need them to be
talking about mental health before those
mental illness and to be connecting with
this conversation then we need to be
providing them with platforms and voices
and services that they want to connect
with in a very small way this is what we
did with our charity when my mum
suggested let’s set up this charity we
all agreed that something needed to
change but myself and my sisters had
real reservations we didn’t want our
brother’s name to become a charity case
at that time age 16 I couldn’t have told
you the name of a mental health charity
they weren’t even on my radar and I
certainly couldn’t tell you one that I
thought was called we wanted to create
something that Ben would have been proud
of that he would have wanted to
associate with so we used his tattoos to
inspire the logo in the name we didn’t
put his name or the words mental health
anywhere on it and my sisters and I
started to create merchandise make
social media posts and organize events
my parents worked tirelessly behind the
scenes but to the public eye it was a
charity for young people run by young
people and it worked we created such a
buzz and whilst our events are fun and
sociable they gave a space for young
people to come along and connect and
have conversations they wouldn’t have
otherwise had even if the conversations
happen after the event that’s valuable
and we know that this works authenticity
real stories and good branding nothing
speaks to young people better than those
things in my experience and you can see
it with online influences they’re taking
over from traditional marketing with a
younger generation for a good reason
they provide authenticity their channels
that young people can trust and they
like it a few years ago when a female
vlogger put up a video talking about her
panic attacks and anxiety it was
groundbreaking it got four million views
recently rap and grime artists who were
male have spoken out about their mental
health
it had an astounding reaction from young
men across the country and they’re
supposedly our hardest demographic to
reach and this is because they’re role
models they’re people young people want
to aspire to and want to associate with
so when they step forward and say I’m
gonna talk about my own mental health
I’m vulnerable
me too for some young people that’s
life-changing because they’ve never
heard that and it gives them strength
through stigma we know this works and we
know this works nationally and yet we
constantly get told young people don’t
want to hear about mental health they
don’t want to engage in conversations
about it I say wrong it’s just that it
works when it comes from channels and
voices and people that they like and
know and trust that’s how we can start a
proper conversation the second thing I
want to talk about is about how we brand
and shape mental health and how we frame
it we still interchange the words mental
health and mental illness constantly
they are not the same thing we all have
physical health and none of us deny it
and we don’t change that with physical
illness yet with mental health we are
always talking about mental health
issues all well being and separating
them when in actual fact there’s a
complete scale I find the concept of a
scale has been the most useful concept
we’ve had oh I’ve heard to use with
young people and the reasons why are
clear if we all have a scale of mental
health within us it empowers you to know
that you can move up and down that scale
there is a scary amount of young people
they think if you get a diagnosed mental
health condition then that’s it it’s a
black and white line between a mental
health condition and being perfectly
well and that’s just not true there’s so
many shades of grey and an entire scale
it also allows young people to think
about the fact that if they slightly
move down the scale they might need some
coping mechanisms they might need
support networks they might need to go
and see a doctor if they move further
down the scale they might need
medication or professional help and all
of these things are okay it’s just that
it’s within a scale you won’t be there
forever recovery as possible
and there are so many ways to become
proud of your journey the diagnosis did
not define you and everybody is
somewhere on that scale
it’s what’s really important to then
stress what we mean by mental well-being
within that scale we’re not trying to
aim to be right up here euphoric ly
happy every day bouncing out of bed it’s
not a reality for anyone mental
well-being is about being able to
experience a whole range of emotions and
coming back to a middle ground and
that’s what we try and instill when we
chat to young people and it’s so much
more achievable than this idea of
happiness which is different for
everybody the other thing that’s really
important about the scale is that
encouraged us encourages us to be
proactive we need to start thinking and
talking about mental health long before
there’s mental health issues we talk and
read about physical health all the time
and we all take preventative measures
some more than others to look after our
physical health we even teach it to
children in school we get them to do PE
lessons we get them to eat five fruit
and veg a day to have a balanced diet
and we do those things so that they know
how to look after their physical health
it won’t
ultimately stop them getting a serious
physical illness but it will give them a
better chance at wellness and we can do
the same with mental health we can teach
young children at school coping
mechanisms relaxation techniques stress
busting techniques resilience we can get
them aware of them into a house so that
they can talk about it and seek help
early now some say it’s too young why
would we bring the conversation at that
age well I disagree if 50% of adult
mental health conditions are presenting
before the age of 14
then we cannot afford to wait around and
the final thing I want to share with you
in how we can really rebrand and reshape
mental health it’s actually recognizing
adolescence and it sounds obvious but
the divides between under a teens and
over a teens the legal line between a
child and an adult stops us thinking
about the whole category of people from
the early teens to the early 20s on your
seventh on when your 17 year old on your
18th birthday you don’t magically become
an adult
overnight nothing changes in the eyes of
the law and in the eyes of mental health
services you do and the care you
received is very different on the other
side of that line I want to encourage
thinking about adolescents as a whole
group they are a unique category of
society they face a vast array of social
pressures whilst they’re navigating a
very difficult developmental period
physically mentally socially emotionally
and we know that the brain doesn’t stop
developing until the early 20s so why
aren’t we recognizing adolescents more
why are we expecting 19 and 20 year olds
or 18 year olds like my brother to
receive adult mental health care when in
fact they’re still struggling with the
pressures of adolescence our young
people today arguably face more
pressures than ever before added
pressures like social media information
overload early exposure to things online
like sexualized content of violence
drugs alcohol body image pressure and
pressures they’re facing a lot and yet
our services don’t match that we don’t
know how to navigate these challenges
and the best way forward to do that
would be to listen to young people it’s
surprising when you work with in mental
health how little young people actually
listen to to inform services to look
after them it’s ironic and whilst we
need to increase capacity in our current
services desperately and we need to fund
them I think we can go better than that
why don’t we innovate why don’t we use
technology why don’t we find new
platforms and use new platforms to speak
to young people and create creative
solutions we need more help and more
support that suits them and to be
platforms that they want to engage with
there’s such a kind of opportunity to
innovate and to lead on this and not
just repeat what we’ve always done and
the best people to lead that would be
young people they know the challenges
they face they can give you insight into
the struggles and they are also
technologically savvy they could lead
the technological revolution of mental
health support and yet we still don’t
give them credit for that we should be
embracing the chance to reshape and
rebrand adolescent mental health I
personally think that we can do better
than we currently do if we really were
to rebrand adolescent mental health from
prevention right through to acute care
we would be prioritizing it we would be
innovating we would be embedding it at
an early age and we’ve been powering
young people to own their own mental
health and to look after it I don’t have
all the answers I I’m just at one girl
who lost her brother who thinks that
better should be done I know that Ben
deserve better and I believe that we can
do better thank you [Applause]
health campaigner and like many other
campaigners sadly this came from
personal tragedy for me it was losing my
brother Ben Ben was 18 years old he was
the most incredible person I will ever
meet he was a fashion student creative
talented utterly charming and loved by
everyone he met in 2010 he suffered with
three months of severe depression just
three months in that time his mental
health really deteriorated he was
sectioned he was put into an adult
mental health unit and we saw him worsen
really really quickly
we felt the environment was really
unsuitable for him they didn’t
understand him and they didn’t know how
to care for him on the 20th of December
2010 my brother took his own life as a
family where Ben had been the light
there was a lot of darkness it was two
days before my 17th birthday I didn’t
know what had happened and I didn’t know
what happened so quickly I’m not gonna
go into what grief felt like but it was
a very very dark time for our family and
one of confusion a few days later my mum
who’d been a real pillar of strength
throughout this time got together with
our family and said I want to set up a
charity in Ben’s memory we all agreed
something had to change we didn’t know
how to run a charity and we worked it
out day by day but we did know that
things had to change we didn’t know
enough about mental health Ben didn’t
know enough about what he was going
through and the services which were
ultimately supposed to keep him safe had
failed him we were just one grieving
family but we felt like if we could even
make a small difference than we should
in January 2011 we set up our charity we
muddled through we learnt how to become
trustees and keep our accounts and
register with the Commission and we
built something all we knew is that we
wanted to raise our voice we wanted to
tell Ben
story we wanted to tell our story and we
wanted young people to know about mental
health to be aware of it before there
was mental illness we felt like if we
could just help one person in Ben’s
honor then we would have done what we’d
set out to do if you fast forward from
2011 to now seven years on and lots
changed in that time as a family we
fought tirelessly and campaigned a lot
and we’ve reached milestones that we
never expected were possible alongside
that the national conversation has
really really opened up over the last
few years mental health has hit the
headlines there has been extensive
coverage of mental health some good some
not so good
things like campaigns and documentaries
celebrities and the raw foundation have
really helped bring it onto the agenda
and it really has helped to smash some
stigma but despite this conversation the
services haven’t followed we’re still
faced with tragic statistics and
statistics our lives young lives in this
country if you’re a male and you’re aged
between 20 and 49 suicide is the leading
cause of death if you’re a female from
age 20 to 34 suicide is the leading
cause of death above all of the accident
and illness and yet mental health care
gets 13% of the NHS budget and youth
mental health care gets even less and we
know how important youth mental health
care is in 2012 the Royal College of
Psychiatrists found that 50% of adult
mental health issues presented before
the age of 14 75 percent before the
early twenties so it makes the best
sense to pour energy and funding into
adolescent mental health care because
not only will you create healthier and
happier young people but you’re also
investing in their quality of life and
their life chances we know this and yet
we don’t do it our services are severely
underfunded the waiting lists are
terrifying so we know that we need to
fund services
and we need to prioritize it when we’re
budgeting for the NHS but I think we can
do better than that I think we can go
further than that I think we should
reshape and rebrand adolescent mental
health services and modernize them to
actually work for the young people that
we’re trying to help the last seven
years for me have been something of a
crash course in Mental Health Awareness
I’ve learnt so much I’ve met so many
people and I’ve listened to so many
stories I’m by no means have the answers
but there’s three key ideas that have
been shared with me that I really want
to share with you and I think they’re
crucial to progress with Adolescent
Mental Health from prevention and
awareness right through to acute care
the first one of those is branding why
is a brand so important well for young
people it really is if we want young
people to be getting in touch with
services early when they need them to be
talking about mental health before those
mental illness and to be connecting with
this conversation then we need to be
providing them with platforms and voices
and services that they want to connect
with in a very small way this is what we
did with our charity when my mum
suggested let’s set up this charity we
all agreed that something needed to
change but myself and my sisters had
real reservations we didn’t want our
brother’s name to become a charity case
at that time age 16 I couldn’t have told
you the name of a mental health charity
they weren’t even on my radar and I
certainly couldn’t tell you one that I
thought was called we wanted to create
something that Ben would have been proud
of that he would have wanted to
associate with so we used his tattoos to
inspire the logo in the name we didn’t
put his name or the words mental health
anywhere on it and my sisters and I
started to create merchandise make
social media posts and organize events
my parents worked tirelessly behind the
scenes but to the public eye it was a
charity for young people run by young
people and it worked we created such a
buzz and whilst our events are fun and
sociable they gave a space for young
people to come along and connect and
have conversations they wouldn’t have
otherwise had even if the conversations
happen after the event that’s valuable
and we know that this works authenticity
real stories and good branding nothing
speaks to young people better than those
things in my experience and you can see
it with online influences they’re taking
over from traditional marketing with a
younger generation for a good reason
they provide authenticity their channels
that young people can trust and they
like it a few years ago when a female
vlogger put up a video talking about her
panic attacks and anxiety it was
groundbreaking it got four million views
recently rap and grime artists who were
male have spoken out about their mental
health
it had an astounding reaction from young
men across the country and they’re
supposedly our hardest demographic to
reach and this is because they’re role
models they’re people young people want
to aspire to and want to associate with
so when they step forward and say I’m
gonna talk about my own mental health
I’m vulnerable
me too for some young people that’s
life-changing because they’ve never
heard that and it gives them strength
through stigma we know this works and we
know this works nationally and yet we
constantly get told young people don’t
want to hear about mental health they
don’t want to engage in conversations
about it I say wrong it’s just that it
works when it comes from channels and
voices and people that they like and
know and trust that’s how we can start a
proper conversation the second thing I
want to talk about is about how we brand
and shape mental health and how we frame
it we still interchange the words mental
health and mental illness constantly
they are not the same thing we all have
physical health and none of us deny it
and we don’t change that with physical
illness yet with mental health we are
always talking about mental health
issues all well being and separating
them when in actual fact there’s a
complete scale I find the concept of a
scale has been the most useful concept
we’ve had oh I’ve heard to use with
young people and the reasons why are
clear if we all have a scale of mental
health within us it empowers you to know
that you can move up and down that scale
there is a scary amount of young people
they think if you get a diagnosed mental
health condition then that’s it it’s a
black and white line between a mental
health condition and being perfectly
well and that’s just not true there’s so
many shades of grey and an entire scale
it also allows young people to think
about the fact that if they slightly
move down the scale they might need some
coping mechanisms they might need
support networks they might need to go
and see a doctor if they move further
down the scale they might need
medication or professional help and all
of these things are okay it’s just that
it’s within a scale you won’t be there
forever recovery as possible
and there are so many ways to become
proud of your journey the diagnosis did
not define you and everybody is
somewhere on that scale
it’s what’s really important to then
stress what we mean by mental well-being
within that scale we’re not trying to
aim to be right up here euphoric ly
happy every day bouncing out of bed it’s
not a reality for anyone mental
well-being is about being able to
experience a whole range of emotions and
coming back to a middle ground and
that’s what we try and instill when we
chat to young people and it’s so much
more achievable than this idea of
happiness which is different for
everybody the other thing that’s really
important about the scale is that
encouraged us encourages us to be
proactive we need to start thinking and
talking about mental health long before
there’s mental health issues we talk and
read about physical health all the time
and we all take preventative measures
some more than others to look after our
physical health we even teach it to
children in school we get them to do PE
lessons we get them to eat five fruit
and veg a day to have a balanced diet
and we do those things so that they know
how to look after their physical health
it won’t
ultimately stop them getting a serious
physical illness but it will give them a
better chance at wellness and we can do
the same with mental health we can teach
young children at school coping
mechanisms relaxation techniques stress
busting techniques resilience we can get
them aware of them into a house so that
they can talk about it and seek help
early now some say it’s too young why
would we bring the conversation at that
age well I disagree if 50% of adult
mental health conditions are presenting
before the age of 14
then we cannot afford to wait around and
the final thing I want to share with you
in how we can really rebrand and reshape
mental health it’s actually recognizing
adolescence and it sounds obvious but
the divides between under a teens and
over a teens the legal line between a
child and an adult stops us thinking
about the whole category of people from
the early teens to the early 20s on your
seventh on when your 17 year old on your
18th birthday you don’t magically become
an adult
overnight nothing changes in the eyes of
the law and in the eyes of mental health
services you do and the care you
received is very different on the other
side of that line I want to encourage
thinking about adolescents as a whole
group they are a unique category of
society they face a vast array of social
pressures whilst they’re navigating a
very difficult developmental period
physically mentally socially emotionally
and we know that the brain doesn’t stop
developing until the early 20s so why
aren’t we recognizing adolescents more
why are we expecting 19 and 20 year olds
or 18 year olds like my brother to
receive adult mental health care when in
fact they’re still struggling with the
pressures of adolescence our young
people today arguably face more
pressures than ever before added
pressures like social media information
overload early exposure to things online
like sexualized content of violence
drugs alcohol body image pressure and
pressures they’re facing a lot and yet
our services don’t match that we don’t
know how to navigate these challenges
and the best way forward to do that
would be to listen to young people it’s
surprising when you work with in mental
health how little young people actually
listen to to inform services to look
after them it’s ironic and whilst we
need to increase capacity in our current
services desperately and we need to fund
them I think we can go better than that
why don’t we innovate why don’t we use
technology why don’t we find new
platforms and use new platforms to speak
to young people and create creative
solutions we need more help and more
support that suits them and to be
platforms that they want to engage with
there’s such a kind of opportunity to
innovate and to lead on this and not
just repeat what we’ve always done and
the best people to lead that would be
young people they know the challenges
they face they can give you insight into
the struggles and they are also
technologically savvy they could lead
the technological revolution of mental
health support and yet we still don’t
give them credit for that we should be
embracing the chance to reshape and
rebrand adolescent mental health I
personally think that we can do better
than we currently do if we really were
to rebrand adolescent mental health from
prevention right through to acute care
we would be prioritizing it we would be
innovating we would be embedding it at
an early age and we’ve been powering
young people to own their own mental
health and to look after it I don’t have
all the answers I I’m just at one girl
who lost her brother who thinks that
better should be done I know that Ben
deserve better and I believe that we can
do better thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: