Mental Health Support
Mental Health Support
Northumberland FA is committed to developing a culture in Grassroots football that is positive, inclusive and supportive to which all participants can reach their full potential, through having equal opportunities in and equal access to football.
The 2022 equality audit highlighted that over 10% of all participants in football have a long term physical or mental health condition. We must also consider that the question in the survey did not ask for those suffering with conditions they didn’t consider long term, while we also know that a significant proportion of people will be suffering with undiagnosed illness. Additionally, Newcastle Upon Tyne is in the bottom 4% for health in England (ONS estimates). Therefore, it would be reasonable to cautiously estimate that approximately 20% of participants in football will be suffering with physical or mental health problems at any given time, a figure that translates to thousands of people.
Therefore, a key priority for us is to form partnerships with organisations who can assist participants in football by gaining quick access to quality mental health support services. We are delighted to have agreed partnerships with Mental Health Concern, Kooth, ManHealth and Tyneside Women’s Health to begin to address this need.
Our ultimate aim is to create an environment that is ‘100% Inclusive’, removing all barriers to participation for everyone, no matter what challenges this entails. We believe that football is for everyone and our key strategic aim is to ensure that this is reflected in our work and delivery.
Mental Health Concern
They support many people with a wide range of mental health-related needs, including:
- People taking their final steps away from specialist mental health services and trying to get into work, education, or training.
- People recovering from complex mental ill-health, who require support over long periods of time.
- People with advanced dementia and complex needs.
Tyneside Women's Health
Tyneside Women’s Health’s charitable objects as agreed with the Charity Commission are defined as:
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To preserve, protect and improve the mental health and wellbeing of women and girls living in the North of England (Area of Benefit);
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To advance the education of women and girls in the area of benefit in relation to their health needs, whether they be physical or emotional and to develop the capacity and skills of such people in such a way that they are better able to identify, and help meet, their needs and to participate more fully in society; and
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To advance the education of professionals, key groups, and social networks of women and girls in the area of benefit in relation to the mental health and wellbeing needs of such people; and the general public by raising awareness of the mental health and wellbeing needs of women and girls.
ManHealth
ManHealth provides weekly ongoing peer support services to men suffering with mental ill health. With peer support groups spread across the North East of England, their sessions are led by men with lived experience and provide hugely valued weekly respite and a safe place for men to discuss how they feel.
With an ethos of sharing and education, their groups enable peer to peer empathy, an experienced ear and most importantly, friends that have walked the walk of mental ill health.
In addition, ManHealth organise specific activities that provide a physical focus to their men, with organised walking & football groups being very popular activities. In turn, these activities serve as great social interaction events, helping struggling men to improve their self-confidence.
Kooth
Kooth’s platforms make a real difference to their service users at every stage of their journey. Kooth measure their impact across our wide range of different functions to constantly improve clinical outcomes. Their service users like Kooth’s platforms, use Kooth’s platforms and feel better as a result.
Kooth’s unique anonymous data sets
Kooth has one of the world’s largest mental health anonymised data sets which they use to help improve product and outcomes for people who utilise our service. We have over 24m data points across 15 years of service delivery. We provide our clients with unique insights into the emerging trends in mental health and we use our data to continually improve our services and clinical models for all to benefit.