ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of football as a vehicle for mental health interventions. This has resulted in the development of a range of projects utilising football as a sport and football clubs as a venue for mental health work. Most of these mental health interventions seek to complement rather than replace ‘standard’ or conventional treatment and, many are underpinned by the ‘recovery-based’ philosophy that has become popular in mainstream psychiatric services. Rather than focusing on diagnosis and trying to identify and reduce symptoms, recovery approaches focus on identifying and a person’s abilities, promoting hope and developing networks that help with social inclusion. This chapter outlines some of the ways in which mental health care has utilised the game, and venues associated with the game, to build programmes. The chapter also examines the way healthcare providers, such as the National Health Service, third sector organisations and football clubs themselves have begun to develop strategies to impact positively on mental health in their local communities. Some of the programmes developed involve playing football, some involve watching football and some involve using football venues as a base for interventions to take place.
