World Mental Health Day

Mental Health Nursing,  Nov 2006  by Pulzer, Matthew

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In support of World Mental Health Day (WMHD), five-a-side football teams from across Kent and south London mental health services met at the David Beckham Academy for a day of training, football and therapetic fun. Matthew Pulzer reports on an Amicus-supported event.

The David Beckham Academy (DBA), adjacent to the London Millennium Dome in Greenwich, is a large, permanent tent structure, shaped like aircraft hangars, covering two full-sized football pitches. Run as a charity, its aim is simple: to provide top-class football 'camps' for eight to fifteen year olds - as part of this remit, up to 10,000 places in the two-to-five day camps are free.

The DBA is usually just for children, and particularly aims to be inclusive of those often excluded in other areas, for example those with learning difficulties. However, this was their first event organised around mental health and adults.

The day started with a short welcome from Erville Millar, Chief Executive of the Kent and Medway Trust. Erville thanked the organisers and the sponsor Amicus, and emphasised the importance of sport and its positive effects on mental health. He explained that: Today demonstrates that we all enjoy having fun even the less fit, and it's a good way of combining service users and providers.'

The 12 teams came from the Kent and Medway Trust and the South London and Maudsley Trust and included all ages, abilities, men and women. The teams were nominally divided into 'countries', and started the day with a series of warm-up exercises, followed by skills training. Each team was assigned their own coach for the day, who helped with dribbling, passing, scoring, tactics and a lot of gentle encouragement.

The initiative and much of the organisation for the day came from psychiatric nurse Darren clay and senior occupational therapist Sarah Rodger-Smith. They started to organise in April by sending out a global email to colleagues across the Trust, inviting teams to take part in a sports day. They planned for 60 places for their own Trust and offered a further 40 to the South London and Maudsley Trust.

Darren and Sarah run a weekly sports group facility at Durham House community mental health centre in Herne Bay (part of the Kent and Medway Partnership Trust), where activities include badminton, table tennis and ten-pin bowling. For the WMHD sports day they chose football because of its broad appeal - it's a common interest for many and people of all abilities and fitness levels can take part. They talked to many venues and then came across the DBA. Darren, who is the south-east representative for the MHNA national professional committee, approached Brian Rogers, the MHNA professional officer link with Amicus and from there put forward a business proposal to Amicus for sponsorship. Amicus agreed to fund the day, further helped by a generous discount from the DBA, who provided the whole facility at cost.

Darren commented: 'From the start the DBA were excellent at providing good ideas on running the day. Instead of a straightforward competition, which would inevitably have involved many clients waiting for their next match, they suggested a sports day, so that everyone was involved all day their input really helped to make the day a success. The coaches understood the importance of engaging with their team and wanted a list of their team names before the event so that everyone would be on first name terms from the start.

'Sport is a wonderful part of therapy for our clients. It emphasises a whole-body approach to health: body as well as mind. The obvious benefits include: positive feelings, confidence, real physical benefits, and it helps with better diet and weight management. But just as important it promotes socialisation, social inclusion and team building because everybody has a role, everyone is important. This is vital, because for many clients part of the challenge facing them is to be involved in the rest of the world. Once they are hooked into the Durham House sports group we encourage them to join local clubs and re-engage with the community. It really helps to give people confidence to say "I can do this". For some clients just turning up and being there is a real achievement, and then it's an opportunity for us to reinforce positive behaviour - it's certainly never about winning and losing, because you win just by taking part.'

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association Nov 2006
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