The Mental Health Foundation is the leading UK charity working in mental health and learning disabilities. 

We promote emotional wellbeing and improve the lives of people with mental health problems and/or with learning disabilities. We aim to achieve this through generating new understandings, knowledge, support and services which are exemplary and replicable. We also provide information for anybody who may be experiencing mental health problems, or who may want to find out more. 

We want to challenge stigma, so that people aren't just "written off" by society. Mental health problems don't just affect other people. Every year, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia or dementia. Every year, one in five children and young people will experience a mental health problem

Our work includes: 

• Crisis services managed by people with experience of mental health problems. Somewhere safe to stay or someone to call who understands. 
• Evaluating different therapies to improve the quality of life of people with mental health problems.
• Strategies for Living. Research by people with experience of mental health problems on how people manage their own mental health. 
• A dementia advice and support service for people with early onset dementia, their relatives and carers. 
• Mental health training for care and support staff.
• The largest website on mental health issues in the United Kingdom.

Our work with children and young people includes:

• A peer support project which trained pupils to provide support and a listening ear to others.
• Training manuals to promote mental health in schools.
• Developing community mental health crisis services for young people which are specific to and responsive to their needs. 
• Exploring the mental health needs of young offenders, looked after children, homeless young people and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• Examining the reasons why particular families don't engage in early intervention parenting programmes to ensure that the services understand how to keep those in most need engaged.

Our publications on children and young people include

• Beneath the Surface. A training pack which provides a comprehensive guide to initiating whole-school approaches to mental health. Due for publication in 2002.
• Bright Futures: Promoting Children and Young People's Mental Health. This is the report of the first ever major inquiry into children and young people's mental health. June 1999.
• I Want To Be Your Friend But I Don't Know How. Whole school approaches to children's mental health. June 2001.
• Peer Support Manual. A guide to setting up a peer listening project in education settings. September 2001.
• Peer Support Video. This video illustrates the work of four peer support schemes, three in secondary schools and one in a voluntary organisation attached to a secondary school. September 2001.

To find out more contact us at the Mental Health Foundation, 7th Floor, 83 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HW. Tel. + 44 (0) 20 7802 0300. Fax. + 44 (0) 20 7802 0301. Email mhf@mhf.org.uk Website www.mentalhealth.org.uk