The week-long initiative aims to create a conversation around mental wellbeing, and to celebrate the occasion, we sat down with people from across the Club to talk about the campaign.
This included meeting with Jane Davies from City in the Community (CITC) to hear about her unique role in the Club’s charitable arm. Later in the week, the Club will be sharing its conversation with Chloe Kelly about her recent long-term injury and its impact on her mental health.
Jane Davies is the first NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Clinician to be brought on board on a full-time basis by a professional football club.
She supports CITC’s delivery team and ensures their participants can be offered immediate support for their mental wellbeing. In doing so, she has helped hundreds of CITC’s participants with their mental health as well as people from across Greater Manchester.
When asked about Mental Health Awareness Week, Jane said: “I think Mental Health Awareness Week is really important, because we still need to keep mental health on people’s agenda.
“We have to keep pushing the message that support is out there for people who want or need assistance with mental health difficulties.”
Jane joined in the same year CITC launched City Thrive, a mental health programme which since September has delivered more than 500 sessions to over 1600 participants.
City Thrive is delivered in partnership with the NHS and includes a bespoke mental health curriculum which blends specially adapted football sessions with one-to-one mentoring and group workshops on mental health awareness, improving mental wellbeing for people up to 25-years-of-age.
The sessions continue throughout the school holidays, offering support and food provisions at a time when young people are most vulnerable to suffering with their physical and mental health.
Jason El-Kaleh, CITC’s Community Outreach Officer, said: “Our ground-breaking partnership with CAHMS and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital has been a real highlight in what has been a hugely successful year for the City Thrive programme.
“The addition of our CAMHS practitioner [Jane] has been a real asset to the programme and CITC as a whole. We have witnessed first-hand Jane’s expertise, experience and passion for supporting the mental wellbeing of young people across Greater Manchester and this has helped take City Thrive from strength to strength.”
The Club will be sharing more mental health-focused content across its channels throughout this week. In the meantime, to find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week, visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk.
