The Sky Blues welcomed the new mental health awareness campaign to the Ricoh last week...
Coventry City and Sky Blues in the Community welcomed new mental health awareness campaign It Takes Balls to Talk to the Ricoh Arena last week.
The campaign ‘It Takes Balls to Talk’ aims to encourage people, particularly men, to talk about how they feel. It uses sporting themes and key messages to direct people to help and support, when they need it.
It has been developed by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, Coventry and Warwickshire MIND, Samaritans and a range of other organisations.
At Saturday's match against Fleetwood Town, It Takes Balls to Talk volunteers promoted the campaign around the stadium before kick-off and the campaign video was played at half time. Volunteers have already attended a number of sporting events across Coventry and Warwickshire to raise awareness of mental health.
Mental health issues can affect anyone and can be caused by a number of factors. Statistics show that suicide is three times more common in men than women and is the most common cause of death in men under 45.
Research has shown that life events such as relationship breakdown, death of a loved one, financial problems, loss or change in employment and alcohol & drug use can contribute to feelings of low mood and despair. If you know your mate is going through any of these things, maybe make an extra effort to ask how they are doing and make some time to listen to them.
If you are going through any of these things, speak to a mate or access support available through the website: www.ittakesballstotalk.com. For more information, you can also search for It Takes Balls to Talk on Facebook or follow @ballstotalk on Twitter.
Sky Blues in the Community Health Manager Hiedi Sloan said: “It was great to welcome the volunteers from It Takes Balls to Talk on Saturday to speak to Sky Blues fans and raise awareness about their important campaign and the vital message which it is promoting.
“The campaign is an important example of how organisations can work together to help promote such an important issue.
"At Sky Blues in the Community, we are committed to actively promoting healthy behaviours and this includes mental health. Mental health issues can affect anyone but it is something that many people can find difficult to talk about. Hopefully through this campaign, we can help end the stigma attached to mental health issues and encourage people to talk about it.”