New Nottingham Forest and NHS pilot aims to get young people talking about mental health
Mental health support teams at Nottinghamshire Healthcare have been working with Nottingham Forest (NFFC) on an exciting new pilot project.
The team is working on a project that will involve delivering workshops in secondary schools, focusing on performance anxiety, as well as general mental health support.
The team wanted to focus on engaging more boys to access services, and generally get male teenagers to talk more about their mental health.
They are working with Forest academy players to create a more engaging session with relatable content, to highlight how everyone at every level can benefit from talking about mental health.
The workshops will be delivered by the teams in schools and will include video clips from the Forest academy players.
Laurie Potter, one of the support team leads at Nottinghamshire Healthcare commented: “The academy players and staff at the club were very engaged and supportive throughout this project.
“It’s great to see that the young players feel safe to be open about topics such as mental health and that support goes way beyond the pitch.
"We are excited to pilot this workshop in our schools and feel the impact will be really powerful in reducing stigma and providing knowledge and skills towards building resilience and knowing when to access support.”
Joseph Sullivan, care group director for mental health at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said: "Our partnership with Nottingham Forest shows how powerful collaboration can be in breaking down stigma, particularly among boys and young men.”
Alex Bailey, academy player care and wellbeing lead at Forest, said: "We are delighted to be involved and are really excited to see the project roll out over the coming months.”