Los Angeles, July 12 - Singer Demi Lovato has teamed up with a mental health charity to honour her late father, Patrick Lovato.

The 20-year-old singer is working with Cast Recovery to start "The Lovato Treatment Scholarship" to help those with mental illnesses and seeking treatment, reports femalefirst. co. uk.

She said: "My dad suffered from mental illnesses... He was suffering so bad that he couldn't function in society normally and he couldn't get the help that he needed. So, when he passed away, I thought myself, 'I wish there was something I could have done.'"

Demi, who has previously been treated for severe depression and self-harming, did not have a close relationship with her father, who died from cancer after a long and painful battle, wants to "make it up to him".

"Now, because he's passed away, I felt like it was too late and then I realised, 'Actually, it's not too late.' He wasn't a bad person, I didn't have the best relationship with him and for so many years I was mad at him. But when he passed away, I realised none of it was even his fault. He had mental illnesses," she said.

She added: "Me and Cast Recovery are teaming up to provide the services that one person will need to get through treatment. Because treatment is actually very, very expensive. And whether it's rehab or in-patient, out-patient - whatever it is - I want to be there providing that service because I didn't get the chance to do it with my dad and I want to make it up to him now that he's looking over me." (IANS)