‘For Men To Talk’ presents at East of England Mental Health in Sport and Physical Activity Conference

As part of the East of England Mind Regional Network Hub, the Herts Sports & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) are working in partnership with the five other Active Partnerships in Hertfordshire and hosted a Mental Health in Physical Activity conference in March 2023. The event was for partners from across the East of England region and, as such, ran as a hybrid event; offering the opportunity to either attend online or in person.

This conference provided learning and networking opportunities that were suitable for cross-sector colleagues interested in how sport and physical activity can be used to benefit people’s mental health. Attendees learnt about why being physically active can benefit someone’s mental health as well as improving understanding of how opportunities can be delivered in order to be inclusive to those living with poor mental health.

‘For Men To Talk’ founder and director, Luke Newman, was invited to present a case study on how and why he founded the group back in December 2019. He also discussed the virtual walking marathon that seven attendees completed in 2022 and how it improved their mental health. Luke finished by discussing the company’s future growth plans.

There were a wife range of guest speakers that discussed mental health in relation to sport and physical activity, these included:

• Dr William Bird MBE is a general practitioner (GP). He has been passionate about getting people more active since the mid-1990s when he set up Health Walks and the Green Gym from his practice near Reading.
• Isaac Kenyon is a Philanthropic British adventurer and professional geoscientist. He joined and led numerous expeditions, completed a relay swim across the English Channel, summated Mt.Kilimanjaro in 4 days and has broke the World and British records for the lightweight longest solo continual ergometer.
• Beat the Street turns towns into giant games. Earn points, win prizes and discover more about your area by walking, running and cycling
• The Essex ActivAte holiday hub provides access to a whole host of free resources to keep children active and entertained over the school holidays
• The Govox online wellbeing platform improves happiness and save lives predominantly in the workplace, education and sports organisations
• Living Sport is a charity that works with partners to improve health, happiness and wellbeing across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by supporting people to be active.
• All To Play For is a weekly socially inclusive drop-in football programme for men aged 18+ struggling with poor mental health, which has made a significant and positive impact on the lives of participants.

Topics Included:

• The science behind the benefits of physical activity and mental health and why it’s so important
• Learning from lived experience from those that have experienced the mental health positives of participating in sport and physical activity
• Examples of successful physical activity projects that have specifically targeted improvements in people’s mental health within the region
• Addressing some of the barriers to participation to people with mental health conditions and how they can best be supported.