FA Cup delay in the name of Mental Health
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The FA Cup third round fixtures will have a delayed kick-off, to promote mental health in football, and to its fans. The kick off will be delayed one minute to spread awareness of mental health. The campaign is. called ‘Take A Minute’ and is the result of a collaboration between Heads Up and Public Health England’s (PHE) ‘Every Mind Matters’ mental health platform.
The President of the FA, Prince William, who also launched Heads Up, is on a journey to place mental health on the same level as physical health. Football is a place that receives a great amount of attention and where a lot of behaviours that contradict a mentally healthy lifestyle are contradicted. Promoting the message in football not only provides a big audience to support through the messaging and direction to supporting agencies, it also promotes information of supporting agencies so they better equipped to support their families and colleagues.
In the Soccology book, we have a chapter dedicated to mental health, to show how it uniquely turns up within football from a playing aspect. We found that those who displayed most concerns and suffered the most, were those under great pressure, stress and victims of the strong alpha environment. Saying this, there are also models of excellence who turned their life around and others who lived a life of wellness from the beginning.
We are hopeful that campaigns that spread awareness, will progress to the next level. The next level being -
1) Looking at the mental health from a social aspect, and how everyday life affects our state.
2) Wellness: Mental illness has been hogging the limelight ever since the conversation has been normalised, so much so, people refer to others who are ill, as having “mental health”.
3) Attention goes towards mental health outside of campaigns and is valued among other values at the top of the hierarchy, in our personal lives and among organisations. Especially those that hold young people long lengths of time - schools, sports clubs etc
Here’s to a mentally healthy future!
#Soccology