End of season for Good Mood Football League

On Thursday 16th June service users from the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will take to the pitch in a 5-a-side event to mark the end of the Good Mood Football League season.

Matches start at 11am at The Zone, St Andrew’s Road, Huddersfield, and it is hoped local residents will come down and support the teams which will be made up of service users from Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.

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.

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.”

For more information contact Disability Football Development Officer James Doyle on james.doyle@wrcfa.com or call 0113 282 2358