The Aston Villa Foundation is proud to support Youth Mental Health Day by reflecting on the impact of the Teamwork Plus initiative.
One in six 5-16-year-olds have a diagnosable mental health disorder, with six in 10 young people experiencing mental health difficulties such as anxiety, low mood, eating disorders and self-harming behaviours. Yet only a third are able to access any effective treatment.
Youth Mental Health Day helps provide hope and positivity. By getting young people engaged in discussions and activities about how to improve their mental health, it goes beyond raising awareness and breaking the stigma surrounding mental health.
With funding provided through the Premier League Charitable Fund and Living Well UK, the Foundation, via the Teamwork Plus initiative, offer up to 12 weeks of free 1:1 wellbeing sessions for young people aged between 8-25.
Referrals are received from within the Foundation through our programmes, and participants who attend provisions and sessions taking place in the community, in schools and at Villa Park.
Wellbeing support is offered by our in-house Wellbeing Practitioner, Sean Holding, with sessions focusing primarily on self-esteem, coping strategies, emotional regulation, anxiety, thought processes and goal setting.
When reflecting on the impact of the programme, Sean shared: “Since the launch of the Teamwork Plus initiative in April 2022, we have been able to connect with 1,244 young people in Birmingham, supporting their mental health and wellbeing needs. This has been through either one-to-one sessions, focus groups or in a variety of community and school-based workshops.
“Having mental health sessions away from a clinical setting has helped the young people I work with feel more relaxed and has increased engagement. When a young person tells me they have successfully used a technique that we have discussed, to me, it feels like scoring a goal.
“Our aim is to keep having a positive impact on as many young people as possible until the programme concludes in October 2025.”
Mentee S has worked closely with Sean on the programme, recently completing their 12 weeks of mentoring. They shared the below about their experience:
“I first joined Teamwork Plus after experiencing a hard time at home with my family, which then started to affect my day-to-day life and school as well. I would frequently get panic attacks. During the sessions, which took place in school, we looked at how to overcome these panic attacks, which I have found really useful as I get them way less.
“We also looked at sleep and headaches which could have been contributors to how I felt in school.
“Overall, I’d like to thank you, Sean, since now I feel way more confident about the upcoming school year, knowing that I’ve learnt ways to control these panic attacks as well as established routines based on what we looked at in school!”
