Dr Nihara Krause receives MBE for services to young people’s mental health
The work of consultant clinical psychologist Dr Nihara Krause, Founder and CEO of youth mental health charity stem4, has been recognised with an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List, published on June 17th.
Over the last 30 years Dr Krause has been dedicated to improving mental health support for young people and families. In 2011 she founded the charity stem4, which focuses on increasing access to early evidence-based mental health interventions to protect the mental health of children and young people. She also advocates for placing the voice of young people and families at the heart of policy-making decisions to drive positive change.
Nihara Krause was moved to establish stem4 due to a lack early mental health interventions in schools. In the early years of stem4, Dr Krause visited schools to advocate and implement a whole-school approach to supporting the mental health and wellbeing needs of students. Then, as she saw a growing number of young people self-harming, unable to access early help, and placed on long NHS waiting lists for treatment, she created the smartphone app Calm Harm, which uses the principles of dialectic behaviour therapy (DBT) to manage and reduce the urge to self-harm.
Today, Dr Krause, and stem4 work with students, parents and teachers in over 1,800 secondary schools and colleges. Head Ed, stem4’s free multimedia resource, is used in Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) lessons to teach pupils about mental health.
Since the launch of Calm Harm in 2016, Dr Krause has created and launched four more NHS-approved smartphone apps, all deploying evidence-based strategies, to help young people in handling their mental health difficulties. In addition to Calm Harm, they are: Clear Fear for anxiety; Move Mood for low mood; Combined Minds, which provides families and friends with practical strategies to support teenage mental health, and Worth Warrior, which helps young people experiencing eating difficulties and body image issues.
In addition to being used and downloaded by over 4 million people, stem4’s free smartphone apps have received numerous awards. High-profile supporters of the apps include actor Tom Holland; though he had announced a break from social media, he felt compelled to go online to talk about stem4, one of the charities that his own charity, The Brothers Trust, is extremely proud to support. “I’d like to take a moment to shine a light on their fantastic work,” he wrote. “Love to you all, and let’s get talking about mental health.”
As stem4 continues to campaign for better access to early mental health interventions, it also highlights the barriers preventing young people from accessing the help they need. To work towards bridging the gap, in 2019 stem4 created Youth Mental Health Day, now held on 19th September every year. In January 2022, in recognition of parents and carers, who, notably in the face of poor access to health and social care, continue to be the most significant source of support for young people, stem4 launched Parent Mental Health Day.
Dr Nihara Krause commented.
“I feel very privileged to receive the honour of an MBE, and especially grateful for a further opportunity to talk about and support young people’s mental health. Although I am very humbled, the honour isn’t only a reflection of my work, it also recognises the dedication and commitment of my colleagues at stem4. The past three years have been very troubling, with so many more young people experiencing mental health difficulties. As I reflect on what this honour means, over the next 12 months my focus will be on promoting resilience in young people, and on campaigning for access to different types of mental health support, whether via community hubs or digitally. At the same time I plan to explore ways to minimise risk for young people as they struggle to access the mental health support they need.”
Rosie Day, stem4 ambassador, actress, and author, said:
“I’m a great supporter of Nihara, and her work through stem4, and I’m so proud that she has been honoured with an MBE. Nihara is truly inspirational, a pioneering expert in her field, and entrepreneurial beyond belief. Her commitment to creating a better future for children and young people and their mental health is exceptional. This honour is very well deserved.”
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About stem4
stem4 is an award-winning charity that supports teenagers with their mental health. It provides evidence-based education, builds resilience, enhances motivation to change, and provides signposts to ensure early intervention and action. stem4 focuses on commonly occurring mental health issues in teenagers including eating disorders, anxiety, depression, self-harm and addiction.
The charity works with students, parents and teachers in secondary schools and colleges, and with health professionals such as GPs and school nurses through its conference programme and through its digitally delivered workshops suitable for PHSE in schools. stem4 is also included in the Royal College of GP toolkit.
■ stem4’s free, evidence-based, smartphone apps
With children and young people experiencing difficulty and long waiting times in accessing effective treatments, stem4 has developed four NHS-approved smartphone apps, all based on evidence-based strategies, to help young people in the treatment of and recovery from their mental health difficulties. These apps have been downloaded and used over 4 million times. These apps include:
- Clear Fear, which uses the evidence-based treatment Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to help manage the symptoms of anxiety;
- Calm Harm, which uses the basic principles of an evidence-based therapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to help manage the urge to self-harm;
- Move Mood,which uses Behavioural Activation Therapy to help improve low mood and manage the symptoms of depression;
- Combined Minds,which uses a Strengths-Based approach that has been shown to be effective in recovery, providing practical strategies for families and friends to support teenage mental health,
- Worth Warrior,which uses the principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E) to overcome issues of negative body image, low self-worth, and related early-stage eating difficulties or disorders.