Break through and be heard

Young people in the UK have greater mental health issues than ever before. 1 in 6 of those aged 5 to 16 have experienced a mental health problem, up from 1 in 19 in 2017. Yet young people, and their parents, can struggle to talk about their mental health. Nearly 1 in 5 young people said they felt excluded at some point because they were spoken down to, or their issues weren’t correctly understood. During this critical period of physical, cognitive and social development, characterised by increasing external stresses (exams, secondary school, social media) day-today stress can easily turn into something more.

We wanted to develop and deliver an emotive, wide-reaching content-led mental health campaign that would have a positive impact on UK families, while raising awareness of the specialist help and support can provide. Our research revealed that while the parent audience is vast, parents of pre-teens often feel isolated and unsure how to initiate conversations with their children during this pivotal stage. We knew our campaign needed to engage on an emotional level with a content-first approach to raise awareness and make a meaningful impact on an important health issue in the UK.