About us

From understanding to impact: improving young people's mental health

The William Templeton Foundation for Young People’s Mental Health (YPMH) is an independent charity working to reduce the prevalence and impact of mental health conditions in young people – from early life to adulthood.

YPMH helps turn mental health research into real-world impact. We work with researchers, innovators and partners across sectors to accelerate understanding, prevention and intervention for mental ill health in young people up to age 25.

Our work focuses on translating research into impactful innovations that can be used at scaled to prevent, detect, diagnose, reduce and treat mental ill health – particularly depression and anxiety. By strengthening collaboration and supporting innovation and implementation, we aim to improve outcomes and help more young people live mentally healthier lives.

Founded by Anne and Peter Templeton, and their son John, in memory of Will Templeton, YPMH was created to connect excellent research with practical solutions. Our goal is to close the gap between what science knows and what helps young people – and those who support them – to prevent and reduce mental ill health.

About Will

Our vision and mission

We are working towards a future where every young person has the opportunity to thrive mentally and emotionally, in which:

  • Fewer young people develop mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety
  • Young people are supported to build resilience and sustain good mental wellbeing
  • Fewer young people take their own life

To achieve this, we support work that:

  • Builds deeper understanding of the factors and mechanisms behind young people’s mental health conditions, and how these are linked
  • Develops impactful innovations that can be used effectively in real-world settings
  • Equips young people, families and professionals with practical tools and evidence-based knowledge
  • Promotes and implements joined-up, whole-person approaches across health, education and community settings
See how we’re changing mental health outcomes

How we're different

YPMH is not a frontline service or helpline provider. Instead, we focus on transforming the systems that support young people’s mental health.

While many mental health charities provide direct services, our work centres on reducing the number of young people who reach crisis point in the first place, and for those who do, help identify and address the ‘upstream factors’ that have led to the condition to enable then to recover and remain in remission. By improving understanding, accelerating innovation and supporting better implementation, we aim to ease pressure on health and education systems and help young people to access effective support earlier.

Our approach is distinct:

  • We don’t offer a helpline – we strengthen the systems and innovations behind care
  • We don’t focus on one stage – we connect research, innovation and real-world practice to improve prevention, early detection, diagnosis, management and treatment
  • We don’t wait for change – we help make it happen faster
Explore our mental health ecosystem
The problem we're solving

Our story and leadership

YPMH is led by Peter Templeton, who brings decades of experience in applying research and innovation to real-world challenges. For 15 years, Peter led a University of Cambridge knowledge-transfer company that worked globally to apply insights from the Institute for Manufacturing. Under his leadership, the company became commercially self-sustaining and gifted more than £4 million to support academic research.

YPMH is governed by a board of trustees with expertise spanning medical practice, systems innovation, governance, family law and financial management.

Let's work together

We collaborate with organisations that share our goal: to reduce the prevalence and impact of mental ill health in young people. Whether you’re a researcher, policymaker, health practitioner, educational or custodial institution, employer, charity, funder or innovator, we’re always keen to explore how we can work together.

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