Today marks the start of the Mental Health Foundations’ annual Mental Health Awareness Week (13th-19th May 2024) where the theme of the week is ‘movement’.

As the governing body of football in our region, this year’s theme is particularly close to our hearts.  

In any given season, Berks & Bucks FA engages with over 80,000 participants and with at least 1 in 4 people in the UK experiencing mental health issues each year we are keen to acknowledge and support the positive impact sport and physical activity can have on our mental health.

We understand we have a responsibility to every participant that is involved in, or wants to be involved in our game, and our award-winning partnership with Berkshire based, national charity, Sport in Mind aims to raise the profile of mental health and the positive relationship sport can have in people’s lives.

Sport in Mind, the UK’s leading mental health sports charity, was established in Reading in 2010 and their mission is to improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and physical activity. 

Throughout the week we’ll be sharing information and resources related to Mental Health & football, including the following resources to help support people in the game:

Football & Mental Health Resource in partnership with Sport in Mind
The FA resource for Referees on Mental Health
The FA resource for Coaches on Mental Health

As well as supporting the work of our charity partners Sport in Mind across the week, including details of their #WellbeingWalks in Abingdon and Reading on Friday 17th May, and other helpful resources, we’ll also be sharing updates on some of our mental health work such as, our newly formed Mental Health Ambassadors project, a special Mental Health edition of our popular grassroots podcast, ‘The Grassroots Football Coach’ and more. 

If you want to get involved with the Mental Health Foundation's campaign on social media and share your #MomentsForMovement, ideas and talk about how it makes you feel, tag the Mental Health Foundation, @sportinmind and @BerksandBucksFA to be part of the #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek conversation.

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