M&S and YoungMinds, the leading mental health charity for young people, have a new charity partnership to raise awareness of the help available to young people struggling with their mental health. The partnership, which will provide funding and support for vital resources aimed at young people and the adults in their lives, launches as new research shows the majority of young people are still not asking for help with their mental health, despite struggling.

To support the new partnership, M&S and YoungMinds have commissioned new research to better understand young people’s mental health. A key finding includes loneliness being the biggest cause of mental health problems in young people. And, despite struggling with their mental health, 65% of young people hadn’t asked for any formal support, with 33% of those saying they felt too embarrassed.

Additionally, 61% of those waiting for mental health support had stopped attending school, college, university or work. Almost two-thirds (59%) said missing school made them feel isolated from their friends and nearly half (47%) said it made them worried for their future, impacting their mental health even further.

The partnership aims to raise £5m over the next three years, including a £1m donation from M&S – enough to run the YoungMinds parents’ helpline for a year.

£5m will double the number of young people and adults in their lives supported by YoungMinds to 7 million people, primarily through digital resources and the parents’ helpline. M&S will also help its 30 million customers and 60,000 colleagues understand more about young people’s mental health and feel able to have better conversations with young people who may be struggling.

Commenting is Victoria McKenzie-Gould, Corporate Affairs Director at M&S. “When we asked colleagues and customers what issues were front of their mind, their family’s mental health was top of the list. It’s a growing issue which touches us all, with around five children in every classroom struggling.

“We have a huge opportunity to help YoungMinds raise awareness, support with much-needed funding – which we’re getting underway with a £1m donation from M&S – and perhaps, most importantly, to help people know what to do when a young person in their life needs some help.”

For further information on YoungMinds, please click here.