Mental Health Awareness Week
Today marks the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual event which the Mental Health Foundation created over 20 years ago, providing an important opportunity for the whole of the UK to focus on achieving positive mental health.
Mental health is more important now than ever before. Over the past year we’ve each been living through a global pandemic which has touched all our lives in one way or another. The disconnect, uncertainty, change and grief has taken its toll on everybody’s mental health. Football offers a platform from which we can make a real difference in the quest for positive mental health for all.
We know mentally healthy people and cultures are the foundations of performance and resilience. As guardians of the game in East Riding, we have a responsibility to demonstrate what a mentally healthy culture looks like, meaning we must set a good example and provide leadership to the game.
Over the past 12 months we’ve made significant progress in this space and are now using this opportunity to continue our campaign to improve and support the Mental Health of everyone involved in grassroots football in our county.
To support this we are delighted to announce that we are:
- Opening up our Mental Wellness Champion to all affiliated youth football clubs in East Riding.
- Creating a Mental Wellness Hub at eastridingfa.com for both adults and young people.
- Delivering a Qwell social media takeover on the 15th and 16th May
Mental Wellness Champion
We are pledging to improve the mental wellness of young people by giving over 700 grassroots football teams access to a Mental Wellness Champion.
Young people should not face mental health problems alone. This is why we are committed to helping recruit, train and support 95 Mental Wellness Champions who will be embedded into every junior football club in the county.
The role of the Mental Wellness Champion is to champion positive mental health in young people, support a culture of listening to young people and promote a positive club culture where young people thrive.
Underpinned by important baseline training and with support from KOOTH the Mental Wellness Champions will also be able to spot signs of poor mental health in young people and provide support through signposting to appropriate services.
Mental Wellness Hub
To support the Mental Health of everyone involved in grassroots football we are creating a Mental Wellness Hub.
The Mental Wellness Hub will provide tips and advice on how to improve your mental health along with signposting information to organisations which provide crisis care.
Importantly we have included information for both adults and young people.
QWELL Social Media Takeover
A free online mental health and emotional wellbeing support service has been launched to help men living across the Humber, Coast and Vale area.
Men aged 18+ living in North Yorkshire, York, Hull, East Riding, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire can now register to use Qwell for Men – a free, anonymous online counselling and emotional wellbeing service which can be accessed anywhere using a computer, smartphone or tablet device.
In England, around one in eight men have a common mental health problem such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Around three-quarters of registered suicides in England and Wales in 2019 were among men (4,303).
With over 10,000 males taking part in in grassroots football in our county each weekend we want to let as many people as possible know about the service Qwell offers. That is why this weekend we are dedicating our social media channels to promoting Qwell and the benefits of their newly commissioned online mental health service.