Today is World Mental Health Day with the theme of this year being, ‘Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority’.
The Community Trust run a number of programmes focusing heavily on mental health and wellbeing.
One programme that specifically focuses on young people’s mental health throughout north Derbyshire is social prescribing.
Jayne Bacon, the Community Trust’s community manager, outlined what the programme entails.
She said: “Currently we are working with 84 young people – between the ages of 11 to 18 – and it is for those who are maybe showing signs of feeling low, isolated and a little bit unsure about what their next steps are.
“Post-COVID, I think a lot of people have found themselves at home a lot and out of COVID, it is really hard to make those friendships.
“What social prescribing does is instead of a medical prescription, where there would be young people on ant-depressants and then maybe stay on them for far too long, it offers a social prescription.
“We have link workers that will work with young people, and the whole family, who are feeling that way to look at what is out there in the community and what’s available.
“It is hosted at the football club which is a space that young people want to come to; it doesn’t look medical, it’s not a hospital, it’s not a school, it’s a really warm environment.”
Spireites Active for Life is a lifestyle intervention course that is aimed at adults with mental health problems by using the ‘Beautiful Game’.
The programme offers classroom learning as well as physical multi-sport sessions and team-building exercises.
Speaking about Active for Life, Jayne said: “Active for Life focuses on the mental health of adults and it is about being active – and how physical activity can really change your mood and ability to mix and make friends.
“It’s a really successful programme that’s been running at the club for a very long time.”
One of the football-centric mental health programmes that the Trust offers is Spireites Football for Life.
It involves a weekly football session with the team training and playing in matches against other teams.
“We also have the mental health football team who are really active in the community,” Jayne stated.
“They meet together to play football, to train together and they also have social events and spend time together.”
World Mental Health Day is a chance to highlight the importance of mental health and importance of talking if you are struggling.
Jayne reiterated the importance of having these mental health programmes for the community.
She said: “Everything we do at the Trust is about improving our life for maybe the most vulnerable families or harder-to-reach families, and often that comes with some mental health support.
“We all have mental health. Some peoples are in good state and other people need some support.
“We are proud of our programmes and proud to be supporting World Mental Health Day.”
