Scotland’s largest mental health charity is hosting a free panel discussion exploring how physical activity and sport can help tackle the current mental health crisis.
SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health) are inviting anyone involved in local sport, such as coaches, personal trainers, jog leaders and more, to join the event, hosted at the stunning Playfair Library Hall at the University of Edinburgh on Friday 29 November.
Speaking at the event will be Stuart Campbell, Director of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow—the first major event in Scotland to pledge to Scotland’s Mental Health Charter. Stuart will be joined by Professor Larissa Davies, a specialist in the economic impact of sport and physical activity. Attendees will also hear first-hand from people with lived experience of mental health problems, and the role physical activity had in their recovery.
Stuart Campbell, Director of the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024, said:“My goal is to highlight what can be achieved through a social impact campaign in partnership with a major sporting event. We need input from all corners of our communities to challenge us to improve.
“This is a chance to start working together to ensure that upcoming sporting events truly resonate and prioritise your best interests. A Scotland that values wellbeing, supports mental health, and cares for its citizens is a stronger, prouder, and more prosperous Scotland.”
Attendees will have the opportunity to create connections with industry peers, share best practice, spread awareness of their work and ask questions directly to our panel of leading experts during a Q&A session.
Professor Larissa Davies, Professor of Applied Sport Economics at the Manchester Metropolitan University, said:“Physical activity is an important preventative health tool for combating poor mental health.
“Being active reduces the likelihood of depression and anxiety, as well as the risk of non-communicable health conditions such as dementia. In addition, it also improves life satisfaction and general wellbeing.
“The case for investing in physical activity to address Scotland’s mental health crisis has never been stronger.
“My research focuses on measuring and valuing the social value of sport and physical activity, including the impacts on health, wellbeing, and social capital, both in the UK and internationally.
“Recent projects include the new social value model for sport and physical activity in England, and a study of Gaelic Games on the island of Ireland.
“I am looking forward to sharing more about my social value research, which spans across more than 15 years.”
The event is delivered in partnership with sportscotland and the University of Edinburgh and is free to attend for anyone who is interested.
Charity head: New children’s mental health service has “the potential to be transformational”
ECHC reports promising data showing children and families benefiting from ‘The Haven’
No Time To Wait pilot service attracts almost 1,300 visits in first six months
A new pilot service set up to tackle the mental health crisis facing children and young people in Scotland has released promising data showing the numbers benefitting from its service in the first six months of operating.
Developed by Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC), ‘The Haven’ wellbeing and resilience service opened at The Fraser Centre in Tranent in September 2023. It is the first centre to open under the Charity’s ‘No Time To Wait’ strategy.
The Haven aims to support families with children struggling with their mental health and prevent problems escalating to the point where professional intervention is needed.
It is open for three afternoons a week and has attracted 1,264 visits in the first six months.
Roslyn Neely, CEO of ECHC said: “Children and young people in Scotland are in the midst of a mental health crisis, a crisis which doesn’t just impact the child, but the whole family who feel they have nowhere to turn.
“We are staggered by the number of people we have been able to support through The Haven, and the impact the service has had on young people and their families. It really does have the potential to be transformational.
“We truly believe there is no time to wait. Allowing the mental health crisis to escalate just wasn’t an option.”
The service was developed in response to ECHC’s research which found that over half (59%) of Scottish families have a child who has experienced a mental health concern. It is hoped the service will be scaled and delivered in community settings and available to all children struggling with their mental health, and their families, across Scotland.
The Haven is open to any child or young person with a mental health concern, and any member of their family, including parents, carers, siblings and grandparents. It offers support in a relaxed and informal setting and provides interventions including family support groups, signposting, fun activities and a drop-in service for those who may just need a cup of tea and a listening ear.
Roslyn Neelyadded:“While we are humbled by the results of the first six months, this is just one pilot service in one small town. We want to see a Haven available for every child who needs it, in every community.”
The Haven is being piloted in Tranent for two years to ascertain the scale of demand. It is modelled on the charity’s existing Hospital Hub, which delivers very similar interventions to children and families visiting Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP).
At its best, The Haven may negate a family’s need for future access to medical support, alleviating the pressures on Scotland’s CAMHS.
Fiona O’Sullivan, Director of Children’s Wellbeing at ECHC, said: “The Haven exists to support the whole family; the child, the parent, the grandparent, the auntie, the carer, whomever is closest to the child in need.
“We have supported people suffering from a range of issues including anxiety, depression, self-harming, challenges with education and school attendance, and eating disorders. Without any medical intervention we have provided young people and their families coping mechanisms to deal with these issues, and crucially, we are seeing positive results.”
Across the UK more children than ever need mental health care as NHS figures show nearly half a million are awaiting treatment.
On National Social Prescribing Day, there is an increasingly significant role being played by coaches in local communities delivering socially prescribed physical activity to support the mental, physical, and emotional health of young people – amid a concerning increase of poor mental health and growing waiting lists for mental health services.
‘Social prescribing’ has traditionally been used to help adults and older adults find non-medical ways of combating loneliness and stress, but now in young people, mental health and emotional wellbeing is the most common reason for referrals.
However, an emerging approach of ‘youth social prescribing’, pioneered by leading youth charity StreetGames through the the creation of a Youth Social Prescribing Network is now directly supporting many children and young people referred to mental health services through physical activity programmes which focus on a child first coaching approach.
The charity is part of The Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC) a collective of like-minded organisations, who want to create a nation of child-first coaches.
Child-first coaching, where coaches focus on championing every child’s voice, choice and journey in sport and physical activity, aims to ensure positive experiences for every young person through the people who know them best – their coaches.
The approach is seen as critical to increasing enjoyment levels for all children and young people and helping them stay active for life but has particular benefits for young people experiencing poor mental health.
As part of activity sessions, coaches are now collaborating actively with young people referred by medical professionals to co-create activity that helps them as an individual, embedding a child-first approach to best understand their individual needs and respecting their voice.
The number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare within the UK has soared by more than 50% in three years – and inclusive physical activity, delivered by coaches that take a child-first approach and priortise wellbeing is now helping young people manage their mental and emotional health.
Chair of the CCC and StreetGames Director Hannah Crane reflected on the incredible positive difference made to the lives of young people: “The Play Their Way campaign is celebrating the profound positive impact child-first coaches can make on the lives of young people.
“Youth social prescribing is a significant area where a huge difference is being made for our children and young people – in this form of physical activity, it is even more essential that coaches are taking a child-first approach which can potentially help reduce hospital admissions and presuure on the NHS.
“StreetGames have founded our Youth Social Prescribing Network with the aim of delivering the approach for children and young people across every Primary Care Network. We are proud to support and celebrate the amazing people delivering physical activity that gives every young person a voice and a choice.
“Via the Play Their Way campaign, we want to further unlock the potential of coaches to directly support the wellbeing of children and young people – and that starts with taking a child-first approach.”
Aysha, a session coach focused on taking a child-first approach when supporting young people with varied and complex needs, said: “It’s vital that we treat all children as indivduals and our ethos is always focused on asking the children what they want to do, having a loose plan in place but knowing that if the plan changes, that’s great because it means the children are doing what they really want to do. This makes them much less likely to disengage.
“Socially prescribed activity for young people can have a huge impact, but we need to deliver it in the right way. Every child is different, every child has the right to be listened to. Getting them active is massively beneficial for supporting their mental health, at a time where this is needed more than ever, and I’m proud of the role our coaches, and coaches across the nation can make.”
One young person shared the profound positive effect her coach has had on her after taking part in weekly sessions, saying: “I originally went to the sessions because I was struggling with my well-being.
“I suffered from social anxiety and was self-harming, I did not have a good self-imagine about myself or who I was. My coach even visited my high school a few times, and was my biggest supporter at the time even when I thought my world was crashing down.
“She helped me holistically with my mental well-being by keeping me busy and helping me get out of the house. She played a pivotal role in supporting me as an indivdual by offering me opportunities to prosper and achieve. Her unwavering encouragement, her genuine care and her thoughtfulness cannot even be transcended into words.”
To learn more about the campaign, access resources and sign up to join the biggest grassroots movement to transform the way we coach our children and young people visit www.playtheirway.org.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC), an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education to vulnerable children and young people, is calling on the Scottish Government to deliver a budget for mental health on 19th December.
The call comes as the latest waiting time figures from Public Health Scotland, published yesterday, indicate that 147 children and young people had been waiting over a year for treatment from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the quarter ending September 2023.1
The figures also show that a total of 5,344 children and young people were still stuck on waiting lists to start treatment at the end of that quarter.
Just 75.6 per cent of patients with mental health problems were seen within 18 weeks from referral to treatment at CAMHS. This falls short of the Scottish Government’s waiting time target of 90 per cent being seen within 18 weeks.
This comes against the background of an increasing level of violent incidents in the classroom, a result in part due to the current mental health emergency, exacerbated by the Covid lockdown and cost-of-living crisis.
A report out from the Scottish Government last week found that more than a third of staff had been at the receiving end of verbal abuse in the preceding seven days, and a poll from the largest teaching union, the EIS, revealed that 63.2 per cent of respondents said there are daily incidents of violence or aggression from pupils aimed at teachers.
However, it should be noted that despite this challenging situation, only 0.66 per cent of the total NHS budget was spent on CAMHS in the 2021/22 financial year.2 Indeed, only 8.78 per cent of total NHS budget was spent on mental health services, a decrease of 0.34% in the past decade (from 9.12 per cent in 2011/12).
The SCSC is calling the Scottish Government to up its game in the budget and make the treatment of mental health issues a key national priority, prioritising spending and avoiding a potential lost generation of children and young people with mental health problems.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, cases of poor mental health in children and young people were at unprecedented levels, with under-resourced services struggling to keep pace with growing demand, leaving an increasing number of vulnerable individuals unable to access support. Children and young people are still battling with the long shadow of lockdown, and the rising cost of living is adding to the pressure.
A spokesperson for the SCSC commented: “The latest figures highlighting that more than 5,300 children and young people are still waiting for treatment from mental health services, with 147 waiting over a year, is extremely alarming.
“We are facing a mental health emergency and many of our children and young people are at breaking point, with stress and anxiety reaching alarming levels as they battle with the long shadow of lockdown and the rising cost of living.
“This is also having a major impact on classroom behaviour, impacting the young people concerned, their fellow pupils and staff.
“Each one of these statistics is an individual, and we would urge the Scottish Government to up its game and make the adequate resourcing of mental health services for our children and young people an absolute priority in the forthcoming budget.”
Edinburgh man Mark Agnew is part of an international crew kayaking across the Arctic’s Northwest Passage
Mark and his team of four will follow the route sought by Franklin’s doomed Northwest Passage voyage in 1845
Mark suffered a mental health crisis in 2018 and credits kayaking with helping him to overcome it
Mark plans to raise over £25,000 for Wilderness Foundation UK
This will be the first time the entire Northwest Passage has ever been kayaked, all the way from Baffin Bay to the Beaufort Sea
British adventurer and motivational speaker, Mark Agnew, is attempting a record-breaking Arctic voyage to kayak the 2000-mile Northwest Passage, an expedition that comes after a prolonged mental health crisis.
On July 1, Mark and a team of three others will set off from Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada, and hope to finish 90 days later at Tuktoyaktuk, an Inuit hamlet in Canada, as they follow the historic Arctic route that links the Atlantic and the Pacific.
This will be the first time the entire route has ever been kayaked. It will also be the first time it is completed with just human power alone – no motors or sails – in any type of craft in a single summer.
Mark, who is from Edinburgh and lives in London, has been preparing for his expedition by kayaking on the Thames with the Putney Bridge Canoe Club and training with polar region expedition paddler, Jeff Allen, who has been helping him to build his stamina and hone his kayaking skills at sea. Yoga is also an important aspect of Mark’s training and helps him prevent injuries.
Mark attempted to set the world record for rowing across the Atlantic twice, but didn’t successfully cross the ocean, let alone set a world record.
After two failed attempts to row across the Atlantic, Mark suffered a mental health spiral, with the devastation of failure making him feel worthless and unmotivated.
After 12 months of feeling wretched, Mark researched resilience and realised that it can be trained and learned, so he began to set himself challenges and gradually his mindset began to change.
Mark explained, “After failing to row the Atlantic twice, I felt utterly worthless. I was overcome with feelings of humiliation and failure. It began to seep into every aspect of my life, and I became lethargic. I wasn’t clinically depressed but the feeling of being pathetic became overwhelming.
“Eventually, I decided I needed to drag myself out of my hole by going on adventures again. I realised I had to focus on the experience and not the outcome. I began to focus on camaraderie, discovery of beautiful landscapes and being at one with nature and not just on the aspect of winning or of gaining the world record.
“That said, I’m still motivated by the world first. In the Northwest Passage, pushing ourselves as a team for the common goal of the world first is important to facilitate our camaraderie and experience. These intrinsic goals are far more fulfilling than focusing on a single outcome.”
Mark hopes to raise over £25,000 for Wilderness Foundation UK, a charity offering education and therapy programmes for young people and adults to help them reconnect to society and to themselves through outdoor facilitation adventures, therapy and mentoring.
Mark said, “Getting out into nature and exercising was fundamental to re-finding my self-worth.
“I’ve been lucky my whole life to be able to get into nature. Wilderness Foundation UK helps countless people, particularly people from backgrounds that might not typically have easy access to the outdoors, re-connect to nature and feel empowered through their experience.”
The route Mark and his team will follow is the same route sought by the British Arctic exploration voyage led by Sir John Franklin in 1845 aboard two ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The expedition met with disaster as both ships became icebound and the crew of 129 men was lost. Mark’s team may even pass directly over the wreck of HMS Terror.
Now, 178 years later, the Arctic’s ice conditions have changed with the region at the forefront of global warming, making this world first only possible as the sea ice melts and disappears.
Mark continued, “This is really the ‘voyage that shouldn’t happen’. One hundred years ago the Northwest Passage would have been frozen almost all year-round, but now we are going to be able to kayak the 2000 miles in a single season – a rather devastating example of how much climate change has affected the planet.”
Mark will be joined on the expedition by three Americans – expedition leader West Hansen, Jeff Wueste and Eileen Visser. The team will each consume between 4,000 to 6,000 calories per day and re-supply halfway in Cambridge Bay. Each night they will camp on shore. They will set up a tripwire to let off a bang if they are approached by polar bears as they sleep.
Wilderness Foundation UK’s CEO Jo Roberts, said, “Wilderness Foundation UK has a history of patrons who have been iconic explorers and adventurers.
“Mark is no different to them in the challenges and hardships they endured and survived. His passion to challenge himself and the ocean links him to the greats of this world. By taking on the Northwest Passage, paddling into an unknown both within himself and the environment, he will be inspiring others to face their fears and embrace their inner strengths.
“As a charity we work with children, teens and adults whose fears hold them back from trying, failing and succeeding – and they get stuck.
“Mark will be setting them an example of what it looks like to give life ‘a go’ and we will be following his paddle strokes and courage as he braves one of the most challenging and magnificent passages.
“Please follow and support him on his journey as he supports others who will undoubtedly take inspiration from his spirit of adventure.”
The expedition can be followed online and with updates on social media at https://www.thearcticcowboys.com and @adventureagnew on Twitter and Instagram.
