Imagine Your Goals, How Are You Feeling Today?
| Published date | 24 May 2013 |
| Pages | 92-99 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20428301311330153 |
| Date | 24 May 2013 |
| Author | Jason Kelvin,Robert Lall |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Imagine Your Goals, How Are You
Feeling Today?
Jason Kelvin and Robert Lall
Jason Kelvin is based at
Arsenal in the Community,
Arsenal Football Club,
London, UK.
Robert Lall is based at Camden
and Islington Mental Health
Foundation NHS Trust,
London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose – The paper aims to outline the Imagine Your Goals, How Are You Feeling Today? project which
seeks to promote the recovery and social inclusion of individuals living with mental health problems through
the medium of football.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the origins of the project and its development
through a number of partnership approaches.
Findings – Project participants exhibit improvements in their physical and psychological health, as well as
improved social lives.
Originality/value – The paper offers an in-depth portrait of a unique partnership between a mental health
NHS Trust, a Premier League football club and the Timeto Change mental health awareness campaign.
Keywords Mental health, Social inclusion, Football, Arsenal in the Community
Paper type Case study
Groups are an effective way of installing hope and increasing individual’s motivation by offering a
shared experience (Yalom, therapeutic principles).
According to the Mental Health Foundation, one in four people in the UK will experience a
mental health problem at some point in their lives, including one in ten children. Depression
affects around one in 12 of the whole population. Rates of self-harm in the UK are the highest in
Europe at 400 per 100,000 (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2001).
In 2010 the Royal College of Psychiatrists published a position statement on public mental
health entitled, No Health Without Public Mental Health (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010).
This included a summary of the research evidence demonstrating the links between mental
health and physical health, outlined below:
’Depression is associated with a 67 per cent increased mortality from cardiovascular disease,
a 50 per cent increased mortality from cancer,a two-fold increased mortality from respiratory
disease and a three-fold increased mortality from metabolic disease.
’Rates of depression are double in those with diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease
and heart failure, and triple in end-stage renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease and cerebrovascular disease.
’Depression almost doubles the risk of later development of coronary heart disease.
Increased psychological distress is associated with an 11 per cent increased risk of stroke.
Depression can be a predictor of colorectal cancer,back pain and irritable bowel syndrome
later in life.
’People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder die an average 25 years earlier than
the general population, largely because of physical health problems. Schizophrenia is
associated with increased death rates from cardiovascular disease (two-fold), respiratory
disease (three-fold) and infectious disease (four-fold).
PAGE 92
j
MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
VOL. 17 NO. 2 2013, pp. 92-99, CEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/20428301311330153
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