MENTAL HEALTH healthy body *Names changed to protect identity T
wenty year old Londoner Peter* lacked confidence. He was too eager to please, anxious to fit in, and this got him into trouble. He fell in with a bad crowd,
drank, smoked and ate too much. He was too impulsive and by his own admission, he didn’t do anything constructive with his days. He wasn’t working and only had this one group of mates. “I felt my life was going in the wrong direction,” he says. Not long after the 2010 World Cup,
however, Peter started playing football. Since then, his life has got better.
Non-competitive treatment At the weekly football session, Peter met Michael. The 24-year-old had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Because of his mental health issues, he lacked confidence and was anxious about meeting new people. Michael wasn’t at
work, but when he did get some money, he just wasted it on drugs. “I thought I needed them to relax and to enjoy myself,” he says. Playing football taught him otherwise. Peter and Michael didn’t join a football club. A cut and thrust, win at all costs environment where players were pushed to improve their own performance or risk letting the team down would have only made things worse for them. Instead, they took part in fun coaching sessions, designed specifically for people with mental health issues. The sessions were run by Leyton Orient Football Club community coaches – coaches who’d had mental health training – and organised by the London Playing Fields Foundation, as part of their Coping through Football project. Four years on, and Michael is off drugs.
He swims, goes to the gym, gained a catering qualification and works part time in a café. He’s even thinking of joining
a Sunday League football team. “I’m no longer in that dark place, I feel more in control of my life,” he says. Peter has lost lots of weight, quit smoking and drinks less. He’s made new friends who understand him and his previous problems and has started volunteering as a boxing coach.
Direct action Sport England, the mental health charity, Mind, and the government hope that the new £2m scheme they launched this October will use sport to help 75,000 people who, like Peter and Michael, have mental health issues; 25,000 during the first 15 months. The new scheme is set to start next year and will run across eight areas in London, the West Midlands, the north west and the north east. It will cost £2m – £1.5m Lottery funding through Sport England, the rest raised by Mind. The government hasn’t yet released
CRISPIN ANDREWS, JOURNALIST
healthy mind
A £2m programme that uses sport to improve the lives of people with mental health problems was announced in October. Can the new initiative, led by Sport England and mental health charity Mind, make a difference?
Taking part in organised sports can help people with mental health issues gain more confidence
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sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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