Blog entry by Grace Clancey
Mental Health Awareness Week – an ideal time to raise awareness of mental health in your organisation
We’re Mind’s Physical Activity team. We use
the power of sport and physical activity to build resilience, support and
enable mental health recovery and to tackle stigma; ensuring that developing healthy
relationships with physical activity forms part of wellbeing support, reducing
inactivity and tackling inequalities.
We’ve been working with Sport England since 2015 and in May 2022, we were delighted to be confirmed as one of Sport England’s system partners. This partnership aims to influence change as part of Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy.
Raising the awareness of mental health
Even though 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem each year, many don’t know where to reach out for support. Or how to share what they are going through. In your organisation, club or group, there’ll be people who are going through a difficult time or experiencing poor mental health right now. Raising awareness and signposting to support can make a difference.
Mental Health Awareness Week is an ideal time to look at how you support your people around mental health and signpost to support.
Someone experiencing a mental health problem in your club/group may find it impacts negatively on their performance and their ability to cope day to day. Coaches, volunteers, leaders and other members of the workforce can play an important role in providing support. Opening up the conversation around mental health can help someone to seek help.
Resources to help support your people
We provide a range of resources. These aim to help clubs, groups and organisations to better support and engage people experiencing mental health problems through physical activity. Here are a few of the many resources we have on our webpage for you to use.
eLearning: Mental health awareness for sport and physical activity +
Our online course will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to better understand and support people living with mental health problems. It’ll help you to create a positive environment that ensures people enjoy the benefits of being active. It costs £12 and has been awarded 1.5 CPD points by CIMPSA.
Mental Health and Physical Activity Toolkit
This is made up of a variety of guides to help organisations, clubs, groups, volunteers and coaches to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for people experiencing mental health problems to be physically active.
Supporting young people during physical activity
Working with young people and coaches, we have co-produced resources to upskill the workforce. Our top tips and handbook for coaches provide information on how better to support young people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, a mental health problem.
Watch and hear River, Paddy and Elsa draw on their lived experience to share how to support young people in physical activity in this 3 minute film.
Tips on developing a healthy relationship with physical activity
We know physical activity can be an amazing way to support mental health. But it isn’t always helpful for everyone all the time. It’s important to recognise that some people in your club, group or organisation may develop an unhealthy relationship with physical activity and sport.
Working with people with lived experience and professionals who’ve supported them, we’ve co-produced resources and blogs to raise the awareness of developing a healthy and balanced relationship with physical activity.
Catherine, George, Debbie and Paula share when physical activity may become unhealthy in this 4 minute film.
Supporting your workforce with their mental health during the cost of living crisis
We’ve produced a booklet providing information on how to support your workforce during this cost of living crisis. The booklet includes a recording of our webinar where you can hear about resources available to support your people. Hear how to spot the signs that someone may be struggling and how to support them. And hear from CIMPSA about how they support their workforce and insight from their members.
Signposting
It’s important when raising awareness of mental health that you signpost to support.
Mind have a confidential Infoline available on 0300 123 3393, Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm, trusted information on our website (mind.org.uk) and our online peer support community Side by Side, available to anyone aged 18 and over with a mental health problem.
Find out more at mind.org.uk/speaktous
Mind and Club Matters
We’re really excited to be working with Club Matters to develop new content on mental health. Together, we’ll provide a place where you’ll be able to find resources, support and guidance around mental health.
We look forward to working with you and Club Matters to support the mental health of your people.