Prince of Wales says we need more ‘male role models’ to talk about mental health
Hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James, William was joined by an ‘extraordinary’ panel which included musician Professor Green and Guvna B.
The Prince of Wales has said there is a need for more “male role models” to talk about and normalise understanding of men’s mental health.
Prince William appeared on an episode of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks and opened up about how he takes a “long time” to understand his emotions during a panel discussion about mental health and suicide prevention.
Hosted by radio presenter Greg James, the Prince of Wales was joined by an “extraordinary” panel, which included rapper Professor Green and grime artist Guvna B, as well as Allan Brownrigg, director of clinical services at James’ Place charity and a young carer named Nathan who shared his personal experiences on the subject.
He said: “Part of feeling comfortable talking about mental health is understanding it and if you’ve got guys who have really gone about trying to really learn about what feelings are, why we feel like we do, what can we do about it, that’s part of the conversation, too.
“We need more male role models out there talking about it and normalising it so that it becomes something that is second nature to all of us.
“Not one person in this world has all the tools for every eventuality or mental state that is going to come across.
“I like to go around looking for new tools to put in my toolbox when I might need it and if we look at it like that, it does normalise the idea that the brain just needs sometimes a little bit of help. But we can’t expect to have all the answers ourselves.
“It’s OK to ask for support, ask a mate, reach out. That becomes just the normalisation process of what’s going on inside your head.”
Over the course of the hour-long episode he also opened up about his own mental health and the importance of learning to love who you are as well as taking time to understand how you feel.
He added: “Be kind to yourself. It is really important and to learn to love yourself and understand yourself.
“I take a long time trying to understand my emotions and why I feel like I do. And I think that’s a really important process to just do every now and again to check in with yourself and work out why you’re feeling like you do. Sometimes there’s an obvious explanation, sometimes there isn’t.
“I think that idea that mental health crisis is temporary, like you can have a really strong mental health crisis moment, but it will pass.
“If we talk about that more and educate people more, then hopefully the idea of suicide gets keeps being pushed further and further away because you know that tomorrow actually you might wake up and you might feel very different.”
Speaking later about the panel discussion, James said he hopes the conversation will enlighten and comfort people.
He said: “It’s a conversation on men’s mental health and suicide prevention, and the guest list is really extraordinary.
“It’s a conversation that I hope will enlighten lots of people, comfort lots of people as well. It’s a conversation about men’s mental health and suicide prevention that we didn’t want to make too heavy. We wanted it to really help people and get the conversation going.”
