‘Football has power to save lives’ as Everton move to reduce impact of general election on mental health

Chasing the Stigma have teamed up with Everton to help fill the current shortfall in mental health provision in the community

Thursday 12 December 2019 13:00 GMT
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Chasing The Stigma is looking to use football as a vehicle to improving mental health
Chasing The Stigma is looking to use football as a vehicle to improving mental health

The provision of mental health services has been one of the recurring themes of this General Election.

In the north west, though, Everton, in partnership with the charity Chasing the Stigma, are taking matters into their own hands in a bid to ensure that those who need access to help and support are able to do so – before it’s too late.

Jake Mills is a stand-up comedian, a handy job at a time when most Evertonians are unsure whether to laugh or cry over their current predicament in the Premier League.

Like many who campaign and actively work in the area of mental health, the chief exec of Chasing the Stigma fell into the field by virtue of his own struggles with depression. He attempted to take his own life in 2013 but was thankfully found before he became another statistic. After sharing his story on social media and finding himself becoming a sounding board for others suffering in the same way he did, he set up a charity to ensure that others had access to the kind of help that he so desperately needed.

Now, in partnership with Everton and the club’s official charity, Everton in the Community, he’s hoping that the current shortfall in mental health provision can be partially met by ‘The People’s Place’, a purpose-built facility that will be built in the shadows of Goodison Park, offering early advice and support for those struggling with mental health problems. It’s hoped it will open in 2020.

The People’s Place should be open by 2020

Undeniably its very existence is an indictment of years of government under-funding in mental health but, at a time of huge mis-trust in the political establishment, it’s a demonstration of how football clubs can fill a void.

“A football club, as a business, is completely unique,” he says. “The fans feel as if they own it, particularly at Everton. They feel as though they’re a family, so for a football club to say ‘okay, we will look after our family and we will provide something’, then in many ways it’s going to be even more impactful than anything the NHS can do. It has that trust built-in, you have that buy-in from people even before a brick has been laid.

“Football in general has the power to save lives, it absolutely does. It’s about how we can use that. I would argue that football teams have that responsibility. Yes, there’s a lot of talk about mental health and yes, there are a lot of promises with regard to the support that might be funded. But there’s a lot of politics around that, a lot of rivalry between political parties. The reality is that the current system for mental health provision in the UK is not fit for purpose.”

Waiting lists and the high thresholds for those seeking support are just two reasons why already stretched mental health services are coming under enormous pressure, to the detriment of those who need help, very often sooner rather than later.

Mental health awareness has soared in recent years, helped in no small part by sports people having the courage to speak up about their own experiences of depression and anxiety.

But as that awareness has risen, investment has failed to keep pace, creating a perfect storm for whichever party forms the next government.

Everton are hoping to make an impact on the community

Funding for the People's Place is ongoing but when the project is complete it will hope to ease the burden on the NHS by encouraging people to access its services before they reach crisis point.

“It’s unfortunately down to people to create their own services, often from a place of pain, a place of loss, a place of hurt – people who have lost people to suicide, who are then creating services to help prevent other people going through the same loss that they did,” says Mills, who also helped to create the Hub of Hope, a national mental health database which brings together organisations and charities from across the country into one central point.

“In 2017, almost three-quarters (74%) of those who died by suicide were not known to mental health services. Those people were dying without even getting any help. That’s the difference, that’s the big difference between physical and mental health. That’s why working with Everton are using the power of football to create something is going to make a difference.”

One of those to turn a heart-breaking situation into something positive is Widnes-born Alfie Fitzsimmons, whose father died by suicide when he was just eight. Last week he was recognised as the fundraiser of the year at the Mirror’s Pride of Sport Awards in conjunction with TSB, and in the New Year, again with support from Everton, the now 10-year-old is set to launch ‘Alfies Squad’, which aims to provide support for children across the country who have suffered bereavement. Again providing a service that wasn’t available to him when he needed it most.

The People’s Place, meanwhile, will focus on helping supporters, and non-football fans, on Merseyside with the preventative measures that can be taken to look after their mental health. Whether that’s through sport or in other areas, the plan is for it to act as a central point throughout an entire community.

“It’s not going to be a facility you would go to in a crisis – it’s a gateway to find help and support if you need it,” says Mills. “It will also look at how we can use community and innovative ways to look after people’s mental health.”

All of which then lessens the burden on the NHS further down the line. Whether it should be left to football clubs or charities to take up the slack as a result of public sector cash squeezes is, of course, a moot point. But that debate can continue elsewhere.

Everton are intent on investing in their community. And no election result is going to change that approach.

For more information visit Chasing The Stigma and follow on Instagram

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