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In Autumn 2019, Charlotte’s daughter, Sasha, attended Action for Children’s Blues Programme – an internationally-acclaimed wellbeing initiative for young people aged 13-19.

At the beginning of the first lockdown, Charlotte noticed Sasha had started locking herself in her bedroom to work.

‘Sasha is anxious anyway,’ she said. ‘But she really suffered during the lockdown because of the loss of her routine, having to self-manage her school work, and worrying that she was going to miss out on her education.

‘I noticed the little things with her. She was overworking and putting loads of pressure on herself. She was going into her room with too many books and overdoing it on the studying and consuming lots of energy drinks. But once she started communicating with her counsellor every Monday, she began to feel better.

‘I think that if she hadn’t gone through the Blues Programme, she wouldn’t have managed so well with this pandemic. She’s been able to use the tips she learned on the programme to manage her feelings and cope with everything.

Charlotte said: ‘The mental health crisis is ongoing, but it’s going to get so much worse. In a way, lockdown can be nice for families; we can stay home and watch Netflix, but it isn’t reality. It’s when furloughing ends and schools start getting back to normal – that’s when we’ll start seeing issues with people’s mental health.’

Thanks to Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide, more than 5,000 young people have now been supported through Action for Children’s Blues Programme. The six-week, early intervention mental health programme has given young people the tools they need to support their mental health both now and in the future.

There’s still time to support Action for Children by donating here as part of our recent Guinness World Records™ title attempt fundraiser. Thank you.

Note: This story has been anonymised to protect the identity of the young person and her mum.