The multi-part documentary series will focus on both mental illness and mental wellness.
Mental health and the stigma around it has come a long way in recent years. We have now become a country that supports the work of mental health workers and the sufferers of mental health disorders.
But we are not completely there yet; one thing that needs to happen is to break the stigma re mental health for good. The only sure way to do that is through awareness and information.
That is exactly what the Duke of Sussex has decided to do. Prince Harry is teaming up with Oprah Winfrey for a documentary series on mental health, Kensington Palace has announced. I am absolutely thrilled to see this much-needed campaign to try to spread information and normalise the issues people face with mental health.
The multi-part documentary series will focus on both mental illness and mental wellness and aims to inspire viewers to have an honest conversation about the challenges we all face and how to equip ourselves with the tools to thrive, rather than to simply survive. It will air on Netflix and Amazon.
Prince Harry said he hoped it would show examples of “human spirit fighting back from the darkest places”. He added that he was “incredibly proud to be working alongside Oprah on this vital series, which we have been developing together for several months”.
The series will build on Harry’s long-standing work on mental health that has seen him share his personal experience and advocating for those who “silently suffer”.
Prince Harry, in my opinion, has made the Royals a more relatable family. With many young people admiring him and his wife Meghan. What a documentary like this will do is show young people that it is okay to suffer from your mental health and perhaps teach an older generation that your mental health is just as important as your physical.
Harry, 34, has championed mental health issues since revealing the “quite serious effect” his mother’s death has had on his life, admitting at times it was “total chaos” and that he had “probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”.
He admitted it had led him to “shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years” and he had only truly addressed his grief at the age of 28 after feeling “on the verge of punching someone”. He had since seen a therapist “more than a couple of times” and had reached a “good place” but hoped by speaking out to encourage others to do the same he would help break the stigma surrounding mental health.
I wholeheartedly agree it is a very brave statement for Prince Harry to come out and say he struggled but the people that statement alone will help is endless.
Oprah Winfrey, who will accompany Harry for the series, told CBS that the idea came out of a conversation she had with Harry when she asked him what he thought were the most important issues facing the world.
“And he said: ‘There are two: climate change, and mental wellness, mental fitness’,” she said.
Winfrey told him highlighting mental health awareness was a “big concern” of hers. Harry asked her what he could to help, and the idea was born.
Harry said-“Our hope is that this series will be positive, enlightening and inclusive – sharing global stories of unparalleled human spirit fighting back from the darkest places, and the opportunity for us to understand ourselves and those around us better.”
Laura Doyle, Mum of 4. Kyle 9, Noa Belle 4, Briar 2 and Milla 12 months. Breastfeeder, co-sleeper, coffee drinker. Staying positive and inspired by the chaos of it all. Follow her on Instagram.