Centre receives Nominet #RESET funding to develop On My Mind

#RESET aims to increase the reach and impact of mental health services for young people. It is part of Nominet’s public benefit activity to improve 1 million lives and will provide grants totalling over £500,000 across some of the UK’s leading mental health and youth charities to provide support for over half a million young people a year.

The Anna Freud Centre will use the funding to increase engagement with and awareness of On My Mind, co-produce new resources with young people, and to build the evidence base around self-care methods.

The Anna Freud Centre will improve the accessibility and relevance of the information and advice the Centre offers young people so that it supports hard to reach groups including: LGBTQ+, homeless young people and children in care.

One in eight children and young people in England have a diagnosable mental health disorder today – that’s 1.25 million children and young people. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or with another sexual identity are roughly two-and-a-half times as likely to have a mental disorder.

Professor Peter Fonagy, CEO of the Anna Freud Centre, says:
“Mental health is the greatest health burden of the 21st Century and it will never be tackled by face to face specialist and professional services alone. There simply is not the capacity to help the number of people desperately in need of support. Other options are critical – healthcare cannot be the only answer.

“We are delighted to be working with Nominet on the #RESET programme. We will be able to go further to reach marginalised groups, generate innovative content, and increase traffic to our digital resources so that we can support many more young people with their mental health.

“If we want young people to have a stronger voice and better understanding of the treatments available to them, then they need to also have a stronger say in the development of the tools and resources aimed at supporting them. That is what we intend to do with On My Mind.”

On My Mind aims to empower young people to make informed decisions about the mental health support they want, the treatments they receive and the outcomes they desire. Co-produced with young people, On My Mind currently consists of nine sections to help young people locate free local support, to understand what to expect when working with a service, and guidance on how to manage their own wellbeing if they are waiting to receive support or would prefer not to receive support.

Other organisations receiving Nominet #RESET funding over an 18-month period from December 2019 include: The Mix, Chasing the Stigma, YoungMinds, stem4, Nightline Association and Barnardo’s.