Mental Health: State Of Mind Sports

Anyone in their lifetime can struggle with mental health issues, even the big strong men and women of Rugby League. Players are designed to be strong and tough, but even these individuals struggle.

Social media is bigger than ever and is more accessible to showcase not only the positive feedback of performances but also, unfortunately, the negative comments that players may face that can impact their mental fitness.

Help is out there in the form of mental fitness sessions like Ahead of the Game and Offload fitness programmes delivered by current and ex-rugby league players to highlight the struggles of mental health and the importance of speaking out.

“One in four people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England with one in six people reporting a common mental health problem (like anxiety and depression) in any given week in England.” – Mind.org.uk

With around 60 men losing their lives to suicide each hour, every year across the world, it has been reported that there was a 50% increase of depression within men.

A shocking statistic with the added stigma attached to men’s mental health issues is a driving force behind charities delivering invaluable sessions, trying to break down the stigma and encouraging players to share their experiences that may save a life one session at a time.

Prost International spoke to Dr Phil Cooper from State of Mind Sport charity to highlight the importance of their role within the Rugby League and the wider community.

State of Mind Sport is a multi-award-winning charity and held the world record for the largest mental health lesson which took place at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The driving force to the setting up of the charity in 2011 was to try and prevent one person from taking their own life after Rugby League player Terry Newton took his own life in 2010 and it drives this movement every day.

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State of Mind is now a much-loved national charity and international movement delivering its message across rugby league, rugby union, multiple other sports, age groups and territories.

It has raised awareness about mental fitness using the latest evidence-based information delivered in a non-clinical style by non-clinicians using different learning styles in all sessions.

Talks are given by presenters and they offer experiences of mental health and powerful examples of how people have overcome the difficulties and turned their lives around from the darkest of places.

The sessions look at the impact of sport and relate to the issues like anxiety and a depressed mood to the different aspects of playing sport, for example, managing the nerves in the dressing room before a performance is the same as managing symptoms of anxiety.

People can relate to the ups and downs of losing and winning games during a season to the ups and downs of life. They use Rugby League and sport, in general, to deliver mental fitness in places where there may be limited access to NHS type of information or treatment.

The charity started by going into sports stadiums or sports clubs with a view to raise awareness and improve performances as Dr Cooper states.

“If players feel good, they will play better and that is an attraction for players at all levels”

The project began with the top-level Super League clubs, Championship and League One clubs with a view to delivering sessions to players, officials, supporters and communities.

Since the beginning of the project, they have delivered sessions to over 100,000 people and at least 80 people have told them they have changed their mind about taking their own life following a session or reading a mental health card or talking to one of the presenters and/or volunteers.

State of Mind Sport have always tried to work with partners including the Rugby Football League and Professional Player Federation amongst others.

They have fostered great links with NHS organisations, national and local charities including MIND, Time to Change, CALM, Papyrus and Rugby League Cares.

They have also worked with Sky Sports winning a MIND media award with Sky Sports broadcasters Angela Powers and Brian Carne.

State of Mind is open and accessible to all, 24 hours a day and has guided hundreds of people to their local health services.

All the co-founders, trustees and presenters do not get paid for the time they give to the sessions so they can ensure that all of the donations they receive are used to deliver the sessions. They deliver commercial sessions and use any profits to deliver FREE sessions in sports clubs, schools, colleges and universities.

They are getting more proficient at bidding for funding from a variety of sources to deliver specific projects to support community Rugby League clubs along with refereeing societies where they are researching the impact of abuse on referees and delivering specific referee focused sessions, alongside developing a Virtual Reality experience “Be the Ref” that will be launched early 2022.

https://stateofmindsports.org/post/state-of-mind-world-first-betheref-virtual-reslity-initiative/

They have also recently developed a mental fitness e-learning that is available for free on their website.

http://eawareness.meritec.co.uk/register/stateofmind

To find out more information on the services State of Mind Sport have available or to book a session visit www.stateofmind.org.uk

Anyone struggling with their mental health can contact the following for Help

The Samaritans

Call – 116 123

www.samaritans.org

MIND

Call – 0300 123 3393

Text – 86463

Email Jo@samaritans.org