On Tuesday morning, Prince William and Kate Middleton attended Shout’s Crisis Volunteer celebration event in London.
- In May 2019, the Duke and Duchess, alongside Harry and Meghan, launched a 24/7 text message service to help those struggling with mental health.
- During their visit to the event today (Tuesday), the royal couple learnt about the impact the service had had on the general public so far.
- This follows royal news that Prince George and Princess Charlotte reportedly have this hilariously relatable argument.
Prince William and Kate Middleton helped to create the important mental health resource, alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Shout is a service partnership between Mental Health Innovations and Crisis Text Line, and exists to provide people across the UK with a free, 24/7 texting service.
On Tuesday, they learned about the impact Shout was having on the people using it, as well as meeting some of the service’s 1,500 volunteers, and some mental health campaigners and advocates.
During the event, the royal couple also comforted the father of 14-year-old teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing graphic content on Instagram.
According to The Mirror, William was overheard asking Molly's father, “Do you think companies like Instagram are doing enough?”, before telling him, “If we can help you in any way, please let us know.”
In the past, Prince William has been critical of social media platforms, and whether or not they’re doing enough to respond to online bullying and protecting their users.
But it seems the royal's new platform for addressing mental health issues is getting a response from people across the UK. Since the launch of Shout, there have been 145,000 text conversations from those struggling, exchanging 6 million messages.
It was developed in partnership with the Heads Together Campaign, which was created by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
A statement on their official website reads, ‘Heads Together is a mental health initiative spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which combines a campaign to tackle stigma and change the conversation on mental health with fundraising for a series of innovative new mental health services.’
