The Child Elf

Fiona is joint Director of Associate Development Solutions Ltd, a company that offers bespoke solutions for service and professional development, and research and evaluation, in children’s mental health. She is also the Director of Parlez! a new Social Enterprise focusing on empowering children and young people to tackle the stigma related to mental health. She has specific research and development expertise in the stigma related to mental health in children and young people, and has designed a whole systems change approach to tackling stigma across individuals, families and communities, based on the findings of her PhD. Fiona was selected from 60,000 nominations to be one of the UK’s 8,000 torchbearers who were honoured with carrying the Olympic Torch in the 2012 Olympics. This was in recognition of her work in tackling the stigma surrounding children’s mental health. She is also Expert Advisor for Children and Young People to Time to Change – the major anti-stigma charity tackling mental health discrimination in England. Fiona has also been awarded the title of Honorary Visiting Fellow in Children’s Mental Health at the University of Northampton in 2013.