Mental Health Champion
Looking after our mental health and well-being can be challenging, whether that be our own mental health or our child’s mental health. This category recognises the work of an individual or organisation who is working to help those affected with mental health problems and offers that all-important support exactly when it is needed.
Dr Jo Jones – ‘Healthcare 4 Kids’
‘Jo transforms lives. She has helped our family at
a time when other professionals wouldn’t help
us, and she helps hundreds of families a year to
transform their lives. She listens to children, and
she listens to parents, and she really understands
them. No words can really do justice to explain
difference between visiting her and visiting the
myriad of NHS professionals we have been involved
with. She just gets it.’
Nicola Reekie – ‘The PDA Space’
Nicola arranges monthly webinars, runs a fantastic
Facebook support group and organises the annual
‘PDA Space Summit’ featuring speakers from all
over the world, not just those offering services, but
also elevating the voices of PDA individuals to bring
the personal side of what it’s like to be PDA parents,
carers and professionals. She is highly empathetic,
a fantastic parent to her own PDA child and a
neurodivergent individual too, but still offers daily
support to all those in need.
Laura King – ‘Old Town Riding School’
Old Town Riding School offers a bespoke personal
support service to challenging and vulnerable young
people and their families. ‘We understand that
young people are falling through the gaps and not
being given what they need due to the pressure on
workloads of schools, colleges, provisions, social
workers and SEN teams.’
Nadine Neckles – ‘The Special Journey Journal’
Nadine Neckles created ‘Special Journey Journals’,
which are beautifully designed journals, easy to use
and curated uniquely to take the user on a journey
from the start of their parenting journey to present
day and beyond. The journal provides a safe space
to journey into the past and also look optimistically
into the future.