Round-up: Academy Mental Health Awareness Month

Throughout the month, players, staff and Academy parents participated in sessions that aimed to raise awareness and encourage conversations around mental health. The programme highlighted the important work the Academy does throughout the year in this area, as well as offering new projects to help encourage everyone to take a proactive approach in taking care of their own mental health.

At the start of March, Nick Cox, Head of Academy, and Harry Maguire, first team captain, launched the campaign. Further to that, senior staff across the club showed their support, with first team interim manager Ralf Rangnick and United Women boss Marc Skinner wearing the Mental Health Foundation’s green ribbon.

Each week of March focused on a different theme, centered around Mind UK’s ‘five ways to wellbeing’. Thus, sessions were held on connecting, taking notice, being active, giving back and continuous learning. 

In the second week of March, Academy players began to engage in practical activities, first on ‘taking notice’. In these, alongside staff members, they learnt and worked on a variety of techniques to achieve this: breathing exercises, yoga and reflection. Players and staff once again wore the green ribbon ahead of the FA Youth Cup semi-final over Wolves at Old Trafford, where our Under-18s won 3-0.

Academy parents across the age groups, meanwhile, learnt ‘how to spot the signs that someone may be struggling’. This was in partnership with high-performance organisation Changing Minds.

The third week focused on the theme of ‘being active’. Staff completed a gruelling 5k-a-day challenge, and players from U11s to U16s participated in interactive workshops. In those, they discussed the role that they can all play in supporting their team-mates’ mental health.

The U16s, U18s, and U23s players broke off into small groups and attended an exhibition that highlighted the many sporting figures who have spoken openly about their mental health. This was done to normalise and encourage conversations on the subject, with quotes from figures in football like our own Jesse Lingard and Ralf Rangnick, ex-Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere and FC Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta, and tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Raphael Nadal and swimmer Michael Phelps.

A quote from Wilshere was one of those featured, and it read: “True courage is to show weakness and not be ashamed of it.”

These figures have led the way in promoting the need to be open about your experiences and the session encouraged United’s youngsters to discuss their mental health. Over the weekend’s fixtures, the U23s and U18s both posed with Mental Health Awareness Month banners ahead of their games to also encourage positive mental health for supporters.

Week four saw U18s players ‘giving back’ in local schools, supporting the Foundation in promoting mental health and wellbeing. The players themselves arranged and led a physical activity session and hosted a Q&A with pupils.

Meanwhile, staff received formal training on adolescent mental health, focusing on how to further support young people, and enjoyed workshops on ‘creating healthy work environments’. The group also had the opportunity to hear from Jonathan Harding, author of ‘Soul – beyond the athlete’, who discussed his investigation into the importance of personal development for athletes. 

Throughout the month resources and expertise were shared with Bayern Munich and S.L. Benfica with coaches from all three clubs holding a roundtable discussion focusing on their own experiences and how they have worked to support players. The Academy directors of the European giants joined together in a streamed conversation, available to staff and parents, about the importance of their work in this area.

The final week saw the focus move towards future learning, with sports psychologist workshops held each day.

To finish off the Awareness Month, the U23s were joined by Rio Ferdinand for a session on the importance of culture and the type of environment the group aimed to create going forward.

Nick Cox, Head of Academy, said:

“The Awareness Month further showcased the importance of player welfare and wellbeing to the Academy. The project provided an ideal opportunity to highlight the key messages of our wider enrichment programme to players, staff, and parents.

“Each of these groups is now even more aware of the importance of mental health and the proactive steps that they can take to promote positive mental wellbeing for all.

“I’m really proud of how well the players engaged with the subject and I know that they have learnt a great deal thanks to the fantastic work that Mick Farrell, Dan Ransom, and Fi Barnes organised.

“We will, of course, continue our extensive work in this area throughout the year, maintaining the active measures we have in place to ensure our players and staff are encouraged to talk about mental health to further lift the stigma associated with it.”