A nurse from Caerphilly was introduced to royalty earlier this month, when she was invited to Buckingham Palace after her work with bereaved children was recognised.
Sara Payne, a registered psychiatric nurse, was among experts and celebrities from across the UK in attending the reception in London on Tuesday, October 10, which was hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry in conjunction with World Mental Health Day.
The mother-of-two has devoted her career to helping children and families facing mental health issues, and was instrumental in setting up a Barnardo’s Cymru bereavement service to support people through their grief.
Sara said: “It was a great privilege to be invited, to have chance to flag up our initiatives in Wales and hear the stories of some remarkable people working in mental health.
“I think that having so much support from the Royals will make a big difference. They are genuinely interested and have already done so much to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health and raise awareness.
“The most important thing is for children and young people to be able to share their thoughts and fears and develop ways of coping with worries.
“I think the princes understand some of their issues and have really helped young people reach out, develop their strengths and build resilience because they experienced loss and trauma themselves.
“Bereavement affects us all and we are still dealing with a huge inability in society to manage it in a healthy way.”
Sara was recognised for her work in developing a child and adolescent to adult mental health services transition model.
The model, designed to help young people with significant mental illnesses to overcome barriers which could prevent them living a normal life, focused on providing young people to access adult services and engaging them in education and training opportunities to help develop new skills and feel more confident.
The model has been adopted by Welsh Government as good practice for all professionals working together to support young people through the transition from child to adult mental health services.