Forest Green tickets on prescription to improve patients' mental health
'Our country's facing a difficult time,' Vince says. 'We've got extreme poverty at one end and extreme wealth at the other end, and football is the thing that binds us, it's the thing that brings us together every week with a common purpose and a common cause. Modern life has stripped a lot from us as people and led to a mental health crisis. Football could help put that right.'
The initiative, called Football on Prescription, was developed with Simon Opher, the doctor and Stroud MP, and will give eligible patients a card which they can take to the New Lawn Stadium to claim their free ticket. Vince and Opher formed a relationship last summer when Vince door-knocked for Opher during the general election. The pair spoke about the idea while watching football together themselves. The initiative will be ready for the new season, with Forest Green's first home game of the campaign against Yeovil on 16 August.
'Our people know how to make ticketing work and so we just came up with a simple card that we gave to GPs that they're then able to give, in effect, as a prescription to anybody they think could benefit from it,' Vince says. 'It has got all the information the patient might need. It's got the information the GP needs. And the same for the club.'
The initiative is a form of social prescribing where non-medical methods are used to improve people's mental health and wellbeing. The concept dates back to the 1920s in the UK, gaining more traction in the 1990s. It is an approach Opher pioneered in Gloucestershire as a GP. Opher, who is the chair of the all-party parliamentary health group, first introduced social prescribing to his practice in 2001 where he started running art sessions at his surgery in Dursley.
'We've got some really quite good scientific evidence now that [social prescribing] improves mental health and reduces social isolation,' he says. 'If someone comes in with some stress – maybe their partner's left or they've lost a very close relative – you know that they are a bit down in the dumps but they don't necessarily need medication, and one of the issues in this country is 8.7 million people in England alone are on antidepressant medication and some people could actually get better with other activities. Social prescribing is a way of providing that.'
Forest Green finished third in the National League last season, their first after being relegated back there from League One. Both Vince and Opher hope the initiative can be extended to more lower-league clubs around the country. 'Unless you're in the Premier League and maybe Championship, most football clubs aren't selling out every week. So it's not like you're giving away the chance to sell a ticket,' says Vince. 'You're just giving away an empty seat to somebody in need.'
Opher is wary, however, of extending it to clubs in higher leagues. 'If a ticket costs £160 and you're giving it out for free, you may actually increase people's attendance at the doctor just to get a free ticket,' he says. 'So we have to be a little bit more careful perhaps with Premier League clubs. But certainly we'd like to see more smaller clubs take up this idea if it works and is effective for people's mental health.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
What every parent needs to know about the 'back-to-school necklace' trend
The new school year is just weeks away, and as parents comb through their to-do lists, a disturbing trend called a 'back-to-school necklace' has circulated on the internet. The trend refers to a noose as a 'necklace' and expresses the suicidal thoughts some kids have on the heels of going back to school. The dark meme seems to resurface at the end of the summer each year, and although some regard it as a joke about dreading school, experts warn of the negative connotations of the trend. Dr. Chelsea Hetherington, a developmental psychologist, wrote in Family Education that jokes about suicide can trivialize the issue and impact students who are struggling with mental health. 'The 'back to school necklace' trend is just one of many ways that teens might joke about suicide and self-harm without recognizing the consequences,' Heatherington argues. The disturbing meme often pictures a noose with the caption, 'Guys look it's a back to school necklace' or 'Back to school necklace. Only $4.99.' Experts warn that parents should be on alert for this phrase and teach their children that joking about harming themselves has serious implications. Samantha Westhouse, a psychotherapist and maternal-infant health social worker, told Parade that parents can facilitate open dialogue by asking their children and teens if they've heard of the meme. The meme pictures a noose with captions like 'Guys look its a back to school necklace' or 'Back to school necklace. Only $4.99' 'It's always important to refrain from judgment so your child feels comfortable sharing how they are feeling,' she said. Emily Cavaleri, a school social worker and child and family therapist, told the publication that if a student refers to a 'back-to-school necklace,' there's a chance that they're struggling with their mental health. 'Whether your child is seriously contemplating suicide or they use this phrase as a cry for help, signs you may see [include] spending time alone, acting withdrawn, irritability, crying easily and often, sleeping more than usual, difficulty sleeping, loss of interest in things they used to enjoy, giving away belongings, and overall, a change in behavior,' she added. Although many kids and teens may use the meme as a form of dark humor, youth suicide is a serious problem. Suicide is responsible for more deaths than any major medical illness for those ages 10 to 24 years old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Data cited by the AAP found that roughly 7-8 percent of adolescents attempt suicide every year, with around 17 percent reporting suicidal thoughts. Around 157,000 individuals in this age group receive emergency medical care a year for self-harm. The United States Surgeon General declared a mental health crisis for children and teens in 2021, citing stressors like gun violence and the impact of social media on young people's lives. Heatherington suggested that parents should be aware of the signs indicating mental health struggles in their kids and keep an open dialogue on the subject.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I am injecting my 13-year-old daughter with fat jabs. This is why I did it, the incredible impact it's already had and why hundreds of parents will follow in my footsteps
Tomorrow evening, just as she has done for the last eight months, Sarah Masterman* will take a small syringe into her 13-year-old daughter Bella's bedroom and swiftly inject medication into one of her thighs. The mother of three is happy to describe this weekly ritual as little short of a lifesaver, although it is not vital emergency medicine that Sarah is administering to her young daughter's body. It is the GLP-1 drug semaglutide, a weight-loss aid better known by brand names such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Teenage Bella is certainly a success story on that front: since Christmas, she has lost three stone, dropping from 11st 7lbs to just over 8st.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Mental health waiting lists: Amy has complex PTSD but has seen a psychiatrist once in 10 years
As a child, Amy was often violently attacked. At 15, she was threatened with a knife. Now diagnosed with complex PTSD, she's spent over a decade isolated at home with her mum, desperately seeking help. She has seen a psychiatrist only once."I was self harming and felt suicidal and didn't want to be alive anymore," says Amy, who's stuck on the long waiting list for NHS mental health has bounced up and down the list for years despite being known by crisis teams at her local hospital and GP is one of thousands of patients across England caught in the backlog of mental health analysis for the BBC by charity Rethink Mental Illness reveals a stark - and widening - inequality between mental and physical healthcare. There are 12 times more patients waiting longer than 18 months for treatment compared to those with physical four emergency ambulance callouts this year, Amy remains on an indefinite waiting list for severe mental health treatment - with no timeline and no clear path out of crisis."I just get told to wait and that services are struggling," she says. "Sometimes I feel really angry and like screaming and cry all day because I can't move on with my life."Amy finally got onto a college course last year but was asked to leave after a crisis."I feel like I'm going round and round in circles and end up in the same situation every single day," she says. Amy's mum no longer works, in order to care for story reflects the harsh reality behind the statistics: lives unravelling while help remains out of reach. Mental health gap widening While the physical health waiting list in England is declining rapidly, the mental health backlog is not coming down rapidly and remains stubbornly high - leaving vulnerable people like Amy stuck and unsupported."This is an urgent wake-up call," says Brian Dow, deputy chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness. "Long delays worsen outcomes. It becomes more expensive to treat them. They end up in secondary care, which is more complex - and they fall further from work and become more reliant on benefits."The analysis uses data from NHS England's monthly statistics. It includes only adults with severe mental illness that have waited more than 78 be included on the waiting list numbers they have to have been referred by community mental health services for further treatment or assessment. Those waiting for talking therapy for mild anxiety or depression are not included in these statistics.A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action the month of May there were 14,586 patients waiting longer than 18 months (78 weeks) for mental health treatment compared to 1,237 people waiting for a physical health operation or Becks Fisher of the Nuffield Trust health think tank said the government had made progress on a pledge to recruit 8,500 more mental health workers but added that access for people referred to mental health services "had not been as prominent" in recent planning and guidance as reducing physical health said that the share of health spending going towards mental health was set to fall in the financial year ending in effect that means departmental funding had been favouring physical health services."Mental health problems disproportionately affect young people," adds Mr Dow. "It makes huge health sense and huge economic sense to prioritise mental health access." What 'good' care looks like A new mental health hub in East London is offering a radically different approach - described as an example of what "good" mental health care could look for walk-in patients without appointments, it provides early intervention in a well-staffed, welcoming space. The effects are already visible - Dr Sheraz Ahmad, a consultant psychiatrist at the centre, says waiting lists have already fallen hub has three consultant psychiatrists and a number of mental health specialists that can offer around-the-clock care. The team here is stable."We want to have conversations early on," explains Dr Ahmad. "Once we understand the problem, we can point people in the right direction - avoiding that vicious circle."Here, it's not just treatment. It's the continuity of care that helps most. "Having access to the same clinicians that know your story everyday makes a huge difference. It builds trust," he says."I come every day and play pool," says Moyna, who is living with schizophrenia."Sometimes I watch TV, listen to music - and feel better."He credits the hub with helping him avoid relapse, and reducing his need for hospital care. He doesn't need an appointment any more to get support and care in times of crisis, and it is all within his neighbourhood. The facility is the first of its kind, with short-stay beds. It is only one of six planned by NHS England from Birmingham to Sheffield, York to hubs, which are tricky to set up and so are unlikely to be able to be scaled up drastically, unite the voluntary sector and the are limited with psychiatrists and infrastructure being the main outlays. Most other staff are volunteers and the east London venue has been provided by a growing calls for more low-cost, high-impact hubs like these, access to this kind of care remains a distant hope for thousands like Amy. Shifting care from hospitals to the community Health Minister Stephen Kinnock acknowledges the reality of mental health care in England: "For far too long people have been let down by the mental health system and that has led to big backlogs."He says the government has a plan to tackle the problems."We're seeing more people present with challenges, and the way to deal with that is shifting support from hospitals into the community," he mental health care, "it's all about prevention" adds Mr Kinnock. That's how he thinks the government can help reduce waiting lists. The gap between mental and physical health waits has grown since Labour came into month, when Amy's mum was discharged after a short hospital stay, she was given a consultant appointment for her physical condition - an undiagnosed heart problem - just a few weeks later. By contrast, Amy continues to wait."We don't know how we're going to get out of this situation," she says. "I want to get a job and go to college and things like that. But we're both just stuck living this life."
