The Cambridge's at Give us a Shout Celebration
If you or someone you know is in need of help text SHOUT to 85258.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended an event for Give Us a Shout to celebrate the volunteers who make the 24/7 crisis support line possible. Since the project launched earlier this year, a partnership between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, volunteers have had over 145,000 conversations amounting to over 6 million messages with people in crisis.
Give us a Shout is a text line available to people in the U.K. who are in crisis and need immediate help or assistance with their mental health. Shout was made possible by a £3 million investment from the Royal Foundation under the umbrella of Heads Together, the mental health Campaign that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry launched in 2017. The Duchess of Sussex now works with the campaign as well following her marriage in 2018.
Shout has discovered that about 75% of people calling in are under 25 and are most often discussing suicide, depression, anxiety, self-harm and isolation during their conversations. Suicide remains the largest killer of men under 35 in the U.K. with staggering amounts of people falling prey to the illness every year. Shout hopes to be available to help people at any time in order to help reduce the suicide rate and help generate more open conversations about mental health.
There are over 1,500 trained volunteers who answer these messages on a daily basis, many of them staying up all night to work between midnight and six am when the helpline typically gets the most messages. Mental Health has become a driving force for much of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's work with significant focus being placed on ending the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Mental Health should be taken as seriously as physical health. If you are struggling with your mental health, it is not a weakness and you are not alone. Please reach out to those around you or text SHOUT to 85258 if you or someone you know needs immediate help.
If you would like to volunteer to help, you can do so here. xx