FOOTBALL ON PRESCRIPTION

 https://www.fgr.co.uk/news/the-beautiful-game-is-just-the-medicine/

https://wecanmove.net/football-on-prescription/

LIVE football will be made available on prescription to help alleviate symptoms of depression under a scheme being piloted by a Labour MP and Ecotricity-owner Dale Vince. 

The plans, drawn up by GP turned MP, Dr Simon Opher (Stroud) and Mr Vince, will see patients at surgeries in Gloucestershire given the chance to attend games at National League side Forest Green Rovers. Mr Vince has owned the club since 2010. The initiative is part of a move by Dr Opher who has pioneered offering social prescribing to patients with mild or moderate depression instead of anti-depressants. Both comedy and gardening have previously been prescribed to patients by Dr Opher!! He said, "On average, around four-in-five people tend to stick with prescribed activities, with one of the main benefits being tackling loneliness". 

Dr Opher said: “I do think there’s something about watching football which does give you a sense of community. “I think one of the biggest problems in our society is social isolation. “It’s really quite toxic, actually, and it’s created in the modern world by social media. “Pubs aren’t so popular, we don’t get out as much, we don’t live in extended families, so that is very bad for you. “You can quantify it, it’s the same health risk as smoking about 20 cigarettes a day. 

It’s really bad. Patients at a dozen surgeries in the county near Forest Green’s The New Lawn ground in Nailsworth will be given the chance to be referred to go to a game. Football gets people out and about, socialising. It will not be for everyone but it must help a good number of people struggling with mental and social issues. It must be better than taking anti-depressants, which by the way has increased in number by around 2% this year to around 8.7 million people in the country.

He said: “If you’ve got severe depression then I would always recommend antidepressants, but a large majority of people have got what they call mild to moderate depression, and the tendency at the moment is to give them tablets, because there’s no mental health support really, it can take six months to get it, and you feel like you need to do something. “That’s why we’ve got to a stage where we’ve got 8.7 million people on antidepressants, so we need to try something else.”  The initiative is planned to run for the whole season, beginning with the side’s first home game against Yeovil Town on August 16. The tickets are being donated for free by Forest Green. 

Mr Vince bought the club in 2010, and has since turned them into the world’s first vegan, and carbon-neutral football club!! Under his ownership the long-time non-league club reached League One, before suffering two back-to-back relegations. 

He said: “I think it’d be a great thing if football clubs up and down the country could reach out to people and do this. “Men typically don’t really talk about their issues, that’s the thing, and you get loneliness and things like that as well. In my life I’ve had periods in my life where I’ve been a bit fed up, and excluded … a bit "down" from time to time. It’s easy to spiral downwards when you’re not in contact with people and I just wanted to do something about that.”  

“Forest Green has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I’m keen to share that.” Dr Opher’s scepticism towards widespread antidepressant prescription came after he began his career as a GP in 1995.