The Prince of Wales has marked Mental Health Awareness Week with a visit to a new men’s suicide prevention centre in Birmingham where he urged people to talk more about the issue of suicide.

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Prince William opened a men’s suicide prevention centre in Birmingham today(Image: Getty Images)

Prince William has opened a men’s suicide prevention centre in Birmingham to mark mental health awareness week. The Prince of Wales has toured a new centre run by James’ Place, a charity which provides free therapy for men in suicidal crisis.

Today, he met both staff and men whose lives have been saved by the charity at its other locations. As he entered the new facility, William was greeted by a host of staff members, where he joked about how many of them were all in one small room. He also spoke about his beloved Aston Villa, who he passionately cheered on to victory on Friday.

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Prince William opened a new mental health facility in Birmingham today(Image: Getty Images)

During the visit, William also met other fellow partners of the network, including Papyrus, MindOUT, and The National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) to share key learnings from across the network.

The Prince of Wales has urged people to talk more about suicide, and praised the work of those in the facility. “The team here are fantastic,” William said. “I hope we can get more of you around the UK, because it is in need of it sadly.

“We need to talk more about suicide, talk more about preventing it and talk about getting it to young men and women earlier, so we don’t have to have these centres in the very long run. That is the aim.”

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William encouraged men to talk more about suicide and mental health struggles(Image: Getty Images)

After their meeting, Marcus Davies, a former service-user and a trustee at the charity, who is from The Wirral in Merseyside, said: “(William) was surprisingly normal, actually.

“I think when we sat down and got into the conversation, he was surprisingly normal, very relaxed, very open and interested in what we had to say.”

Another former service-user, Ben Brand, who travelled from Bedford for the prince’s visit, said: “We were very nervous to begin with, but once he got in the room and sat down, it relaxed very quickly.

“It was like just talking to anybody, really. You wouldn’t think you were speaking to the prince, the future King. It was just speaking to another man, just having a chat.”

Mr Davies said the prince’s visit could help inform more men in crisis about the charity, as he said: “I think for that publicity, his reach and the audience that he can reach through his status and who he is, I think that’s just critical to getting that message far and wide.

“I had never heard of James’s Place prior to my GP referring me. It’s so important that men know that it is there and available as a service to help those that need it. The more far and wide that message can be delivered, the better – and he has the scope to be able to do that.”

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A trustee of the charity said William’s visit could help more men in crisis(Image: Getty Images)

To commemorate the visit, William unveiled a plaque to mark the official opening of the centre, and was then thanked by James’ mother, Clare Milford Haven, for his ongoing support to the charity.

Milford Haven then presented a James’ Place hoodie to the prince and her other son, Harry Wentworth-Stanley, for the ultra-endurance triathlon he is undertaking to fundraise for a fifth clinic. William joked: “I think mine might be a little bit cleaner than yours by the end of your [challenge].”

James’ Place was founded in memory of James Wentworth-Stanley, a Newcastle University student, who took his own life in 2006 at age 21, with this year marking 20 years since his death.

Since 2018, the charity’s three existing centres have saved over 5,100 men’s lives. The charity solely supports men, who account for over 75 per cent of suicides in the UK. The Birmingham venue is the fourth of the charity’s centres, following successful programmes in Liverpool, London and Newcastle.

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The Prince of Wales spoke with mental health representatives (Image: Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace)

Opening their London centre in 2022, William said at the time, “The one takeaway for me is the idea that there is a solution.

“I think men sometimes get so lost in the detail, they forget the bigger picture and being able to have that bit of support that can move them forward and there is hope and a brighter future.”

Earlier this year, William also met Allan Brownrigg, director of clinical services at James’ Place, and former client Nathan, to discuss men’s mental health on an episode of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks.

During the conversation, William described his mental health “deteriorating” while volunteering as an air ambulance pilot. He went on to explain that more “male role models” speaking candidly about their experiences with mental health would help other men feel as though they could open up.

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The visit was commemorated by a plaque, which William unveiled at the end of the engagement(Image: Getty Images)

James’ Place hopes to open a fifth centre by 2027, which will allow them to treat up to 2,000 men per year. Currently, men can self-refer or be referred by a healthcare professional to James’ Place.

They typically receive six to eight face-to-face sessions with a trained therapist in a setting that is designed to feel calm, rather than clinical.

In October, James’ Place became one of five founding partners of the new National Suicide Prevention Network (NSPN), established by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.

Through the network, funding from The Royal Foundation is supporting James’ Place to pilot two new satellite services over 12 months in the North East and North West of England, expanding access to free, life-saving therapy in community-based settings.