For World Mental Health Day, we are looking back on the incredible work we have done together with the Heads Together campaign, which is spearheaded by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, as well as the 7 other official charity partners.

When we kicked off on this journey to change the conversation around mental health, we hoped to show how important it is to talk about mental health.  For Best Beginnings, our Out of the Blue film series was launched with the Duchess of Cambridge  to support parent mental health, and thus in turn, bonding, attunement and infant mental health. These were created with health professionals and parents with lived experiences to support parents facing similar challenges.

Team Best Beginnings and Heads Together runners took part in the world’s first ever Mental Health Marathon in April this year.  Our team banded together to support Best Beginnings and the mental health of parents and children. 

Heads Together teamed up with YouGov to evaluate how the UK is talking about mental health from February till May this year. 14,000 people were surveyed and the data was then analysed with the help of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College. This was presented to the Duke of Cambridge on 8th October, 2017.

Together we have generated a national conversation around mental health.  8 out of 10 people found that having a recent conversation helped their mental health.  However, there is much more work to be done. Heads Together will be looking to invest to support mental health in schools, work places, and armed services.  The Royal Foundation is also investing 2 million to back digital solutions for mental health.

Since the Heads Together campaign, there has been a 105% increase in downloads of our multi-award winning, free app, Baby Buddy!  Not only are we reaching more parents across the UK with our digital resources, but we continuously collaborate with local health professionals and communities to embed the use of Baby Buddy in local health care pathways.  This helps to support both parents and professionals during their medical appointments, and also helps to empower parents with confidence and knowledge to maximise their child’s physical and emotional wellbeing, and brain development.

Looking forward, we don’t just want to show the importance of speaking out.  At Best Beginnings we want to support parents to have those conversations and encourage partners to listen to their loved ones. We are working hard to develop Baby Buddy content further to support fathers, as well as to support child development and wellbeing up to the age of 3.