The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is the biggest health crisis for generations. The pandemic has increased the mental health risks for our society.
Before the crisis hit mental illness was already the single largest cause of ill healthand disability in Northern Ireland with around 1 in 5 adults and around 45,000 of children suffering from a mental health problem at any one time The impact of Covid19 will see potentially result in a further increase.
The impact of Covid19 has exacerbated the pre-existing troubled state of affairs regarding mental health in NI and across the UK:
The UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, has reported a 700% increase in calls to its helpline in a single day;
Young Minds reveals 32% of young people agreed that COVID-19 had made their mental health much worse and 51% agreed that it had made their mental health a bit worse; In Northern Ireland, stigma is still a major deterrent to seeking help for mental illness.
Prescription rates for mood and anxiety disorders has increased in NI with a higher rate in women than men.
Sport NI CEO Antoinette McKeown, in partnership with the PHA, today announced the launch of The Sport Wellbeing Hub in response to the COVID 19 challenge. The Hub is unique. It provides instant access to helpful information, guidance and screening that is tailored specifically to help care for our wellbeing needs.
Speaking online at the launch, Antoinette McKeown said, “We developed The Sport Wellbeing Hub with Inspire; to help you create your own wellbeing care-plan, as well as giving guidance on support through a guided self-assessment. It helps to provide the right help, right now, with online access to a range of fantastic and usefulresources that are tailored to the user, which is so important at this challenging time’’.
The Sport Wellbeing Hub is a valuable online resource that we encourage you to use. The Hub is for everyone across the sporting community, those who are involved in sport, at all levels and all abilities. Everyone.
The Sport Wellbeing Hub, provides a fantastic range of innovative tools and resources, including:
– Guided self-assessment via ‘Chatbot’;
– Self-help programmes and digital intervention tools;
– Searchable ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ map; and
– Wellbeing information library.
– Video content featuring some of our sporting heroes talking about mental health
Whether looking for some advice or need a little more direction, please visit The Sports Wellbeing Hub: www.inspiresupporthub.org/sports
If you are in distress or despair and urgently need to speak to someone, please call Lifeline. 0808 808 8000
Deaf and hard of hearing Textphone users can call Lifeline on 18001 0808 808 8000. Calls to Lifeline are free to people living in Northern Ireland who are calling from UK landlines and mobiles.]
Other mental health and wellbeing resources are available on the recently updated Wellbeing in Sport page
Sport NI will be offering workshops on Mental Health Awareness and Addiction in Sport. Should you wish to express an interest in one or both workshops please complete an expression of interest form. Or feel free to contact wellbeinginsport@sportni.net to request a form. Sport NI will follow up and contact you directly to arrange a workshop.
Play it safe, slow down and take care!
#SportSafeStrong #WellbeinginSport #JoinTheFightback
