ATHLETE WELLBEING // MENTAL HEALTH
MENTAL WELLBEING & ATHLETE WELFARE
Our Club Mental Health Ambassador is Jennie Browning-Adams
Brentwood Beagles believe that your wellbeing is the most important aspect of your participation in athletics and involvement in the club. The role of our mental wellbeing ambassador is to support our athletes to access the mental wellbeing benefits of running / participation in athletics, to remove any stigma around mental wellbeing and to get people talking about healthy mental wellbeing.
If you have something you want to talk about in confidence, you can contact Jennie via jennie@beagles.org.uk. Jennie is a trained counsellor.
Regular participation in sport and physical activity has been shown to have significant benefits on both physical and mental wellbeing. We know that getting active can have a positive impact on physical health, but it can really improve your mental wellbeing too. It can reduce the risk of depression, act as a mood lifter and improve self-esteem. It can also help to reduce stress and help people think more clearly. In fact, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides prescribing guidance for healthcare professionals, actually recommends it as a primary intervention for mild-to-moderate mental wellbeing challenges. In many ways, mental wellbeing is just like physical health: everybody has it and we need to take care of it.
The club aims to:
- Develop and maintain a non-judgemental culture, where emotional wellbeing can be openly discussed.
- Provide a confidential ear which will be open to all club members.
- Promote emotional wellbeing alongside physical wellbeing in the club’s activities and information provided to members.
- Signpost members to relevant information and organisations that support emotional wellbeing.
- Promote referrals from external organisations to encourage new members to join and experience the benefits of exercise.
Further relevant information can be found on the safeguarding pages.
LINKS TO USEFUL RESOURCES
- MIND – the mental health charity
- England Athletics – Mental Wellbeing and Running
- Sport England – Mental Wellbeing
- Mental Health Foundation
- Child and adolescent Mental Health
- Childline
- Campaign against living miserably
- Samaritans
- Sporting Minds
- Sport in Mind