Kick off for Trust’s Good Mood Football League
On Thursday 14th October service users from the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will take to the pitch for the start of the latest Good Mood Football League season.
The league is made up of nine teams that train on a weekly basis, but official league matches take place quarterly.
The difference between this league and other amateur football leagues is that the players are all current mental health service users, with conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Playing football has both psychological and physical benefits from anger management to anxiety control, but the most apparent advantage is that taking part gets people out of the house and socialising.
The league aims to eliminate stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health and provides a great opportunity for service users to boost their mental wellbeing through exercise.
The match on October 14th coincides with the Trust’s wellbeing month, which is designed to raise awareness about mental health and ways in which local people can boost their own wellbeing.
The Good Mood league has been a remarkable success and with the help of The Zone in Huddersfield it has secured funding from The New Football Pools allowing the league to be affiliated with the Football Association.
This partnership has enabled the league to expand into mainstream football and will open up training opportunities for volunteers.
Day service worker Julian Moses, who works with the Calderdale Inclusion Support Service, said, "This is an ideal opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues, reduce stigma and promote wellbeing through exercise. We know that physical activity and social inclusion all make a big difference to wellbeing so the football league is great at supporting these areas.”
Matches start at 10.30am at The Zone, St Andrew’s Road, Huddersfield and it is hoped local residents will come down and support the teams who are made up of players from the areas the Trust covers; Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.
For more information contact Disability Football Development Officer James Doyle on james.doyle@wrcfa.com or call 0113 282 2358.