SPORT AND MENTAL HEALTH
You need to show health professionals how sports organisations can add to what they’re already doing, that you can help them achieve their objectives around recovery.
community outreach teams across London, while early intervention teams send younger people at risk of developing chronic issues. Local Mind groups have also been running sports activities for people with mental health issues. Rochdale has put on taster sessions in Zumba, Bollywood and line dancing, aerobics, tai-chi, yoga, five-a-side football, table tennis and badminton. Brentwood Mind runs a walking group, where people socialise, exercise and explore the local area. In Croydon, Mind works with Duke
McKenzie, to put on boxing fitness classes at the former boxing world champion gymnasium in Crystal Palace. “People who’ve been on these projects
score better on measures for depression and anxiety,” says Richard Paccati, Croydon in Mind’s CEO. “They see the GP less, are less likely to be admitted to hospital and need less medication.”
Keep them coming A sports session for people with mental health issues is not about training a team or promoting a sport. Nor is it about learning skills and improving performance. All that can create pressure to do well, to be better than someone else and to win. That means more stress and anxiety. There is, actually, only one aim. That the people who come along to the sessions will come back the next week, so they can continue to benefit from the activity. “This activity is supposed to be therapeutic, to
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make people feel better,” Sam Challis says. “You don’t want the coach shouting at people to do that little bit extra. The coach needs to have an understanding of why the people are there and what they need.” Alex Welsh agrees. “You’re not looking
for sporting outcomes,” he says. “If the coach shouts anything it’ll be ‘well done’, or ‘good effort’ and it will be targeted at building up an individual’s self-esteem.” Mike Diaper wants sports professionals
to try and understand just how difficult it can be for someone who has a mental health issue to actually come through the door of a sports activity. “Even if they really enjoy the sport, it can
be a really big deal for them,” he says. Sam Challis says this is because a person
may have had a bad experience at school, or be worried that they don’t have the skills to do as well as they want to. Or it might just be because they haven’t done it before. Alex Welsh adds that the environment needs to be relaxed and welcoming. “Like Cheers, the American sitcom – but without the beers,” he says. Whether involved in the new project
or setting up an independent one; it’s important to make links with local authority health practitioners and GPs. It’s the health professionals who will refer people to these activities through local Mind offices. “Show the health professionals that we’re
here to help,” Mike Diaper says. “That sport isn’t all about competition and team sports. That we have more to offer, easy to access
activities that don’t require people to have a lot of skills to take part.” Alex Welsh adds: “The industry needs
to show health professionals how sports organisations can add to what they’re already doing. That we can help them achieve their objectives around recovery and help people live normal lives.” Mike Diaper suggests involving people
who have, or have had, a mental health problem, in designing the sessions. “They will know what helped them, what to include that might be of benefit to others, and how to communicate with people who have similar issues,” he says. “Sport needs to get involved with
projects like these. We use public money and the government, local authorities want to see health and economic benefits as well as sporting achievements.” What sport people do in sessions
like these might seem pretty basic, but Alex Welsh argues that organisers and deliverers need to work just as hard to get it right, and do it well, as those who work with the elite performers. “At elite level its only sport,” Welsh says. “Here, its lives that are at stake.” l
Find out more
www.mind.org.uk www.copingthroughfootball.org www.mindincroydon.org.uk/active-minds.asp
sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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