Cambridge United are pleased to release an extended version of Gary Deegan and David Forde’s Time To Talk conversation, with the first team pairing opening up on the importance of discussing mental health as well as their own experiences within football.
The Club recently released four short films to mark Time To Talk Day 2019 (Thursday 7th February) showing conversations between players and staff discussing mental health in football. They were designed to show the value of talking and supporting one another to help encourage others to do the same.
The films form part of Cambridge United’s programme to be a ‘mentally health football club’ which has included Mental Health First Aid Training by MIND for the majority of the Club’s coaching staff. The English Football League announced their On Your Side partnership with MIND at the start of the 2018/19 season.
The Club, through its Community Trust, is delivering the ‘Mind Your Head’ Programme in local secondary schools in Cambridge to promote positive mental health - with players taking an active role in talking about the pressures of dealing with social media for example. The programme was recently praised in a parliamentary report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood. The report highlighted Mind Your Head as “an example of a successful practice based evidence programme that is certainly capable of successful adoption and replication in other school settings.”
The club is also partnering with Cambridgeshire County Council to provide mental health drop-ins at the Abbey Stadium. So far 15 families have received support through these drop-ins and the next two sessions, to be held in March and May, are fully subscribed.
Further information can be found at cuctrust.co.uk.