Joe Wicks Talks About Mental Health at Ealing Primary
Visits Woodlands Academy to see the work of charity Our Time
Joe Wicks MBE wants to see this kind of mental health provision expanded
TV fitness coach and lockdown phenomenon Joe Wicks MBE visited a school in Ealing recently to learn more about the work being done by a mental health charity.
He met pupils from Woodlands Academy Primary participating in an outreach programme run by Our Time which supports children who have parents with a mental illness.
The visit forms part of a documentary called Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood, to be broadcast on Monday May 16 at 9pm in which Joe talks about the impact of his own parents’ mental health difficulties.
He speaks to Our Time’s Chief Executive, the psychologist Dympna Cunnane, as he seeks to understand the issues involved, and sets out to learn what help is available for other children growing up in similar circumstances. Joe visits one of Our Time’s KidsTime Workshops, for families where a parent is struggling with their mental health, and shares his experiences with one of the charity’s trustees, who went to KidsTime as a child.
On Our Time’s podcast My Family, Mental Illness… and Me, he spoke about his visit to the KidsTime Workshop, "I left that place feeling really uplifted. I was sad though, because I thought this is one charity that's doing it in the whole of the UK. Like, there needs to be more of this, it was only touching a certain amount of families, but that kind of care....everyone should have access to that ...because there's millions of families with parental mental health isn't there? And I thought this kind of work is so powerful and so important that it really should be in every single borough in the country."
He added, “I'm really glad that I got to meet Our Time and the work they're doing, because it's really uplifting… I felt like it was a really positive step and an amazing initiative that if it gets rolled out and more people get access to it, it's going to save a lot of lives and it's going to transform a lot of children's lives as well….And I just love the mission of that charity. I think it's wonderful. “
A spokesperson for the Our Time said, “Our Time is immensely proud to be part of this project, and we are very grateful to Joe Wicks, Mindhouse Productions and the BBC for the chance to be involved. It is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the unique challenges faced by children living with poor parental mental health, and also the importance of the work we do to support them. Through this, we show these young people they are not alone, and help them to understand what it is to struggle with mental ill health. With our support they can find resilience, confidence and community.”
According to Our Time, around one in three children have a parent with poor mental health, and they are three times more likely to face similar difficulties themselves. With the right help, the charity believes they can break this intergenerational cycle of mental ill-health. However, it says there is little targeted support available for these young people, and all too often they fall between the cracks of different services.
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May 12, 2022