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We're Ryan, Dan, and Ant, three 20 something lads, from Birkenhead, who love football. 24% of women and 13% of men in England are diagnosed with depression in their lifetime. But men are three times more likely to die from suicide than women. We wanted to know why. Join us every Monday and Friday as we speak to people from the wide world of football, all about Mental Health, in an attempt to learn more about it, and encourage men to feel more comfortable talking about their health and wellbeing, and attempt to remove the stigma that still surrounds the topic.
Episodes
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
Episode 65
Ensuring mental health support is easily accessible for footballers.
Michael Bennett is the current director of player welfare for the Professional Footballers Association (PFA). Before his professional career came to an end, Michael made around 200 appearances as a professional footballer for clubs including Charlton, Wimbledon, Brighton, Millwall and Brentford. A knee injury ultimately brought Michael's career to an end, and the difficulties he faced towards the end of his playing career has informed his role as the lead on mental health support for the footballers union.
Michael has held the position for just over a decade. Having qualified as a counsellor and psychotherapist, he was appointed director of player welfare in 2011. Since that time, Michael has researched, devised and implemented the PFA's current welfare strategy for all registered footballers.
In today's episode we discover what support is available for professional footballers, how they access it, and what barriers there are for players currently playing within the professional game. We have heard from numerous footballers over the past 14 months about their experiences with the PFA, both good and bad. Now it's time for a representative of the PFA to have their say, on the work they do to ensure footballers within the game have the appropriate mental health provisions.
** If you are a footballer wanting mental health support the PFA has 24/7 wellbeing services available via a hotline - 07500 000 777 **
If you enjoy this episode, or any of our other episodes, please pop over to apple podcasts, and give us a rating and a review.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/man-marking/id1506661828
You can find us on Twitter @marking_man and don't forget to use the hashtag #WheresTheTalkingLads
If you have been affected by any of the themes discussed in today's episode, we have listed some organisations below who are there if you need to talk:
Samaritans
Call 116 132 for free
Papyrus UK
Call 0800 068 41 41
CALM ZONE
0800 58 58 58
https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/helpline/
MIND
0300 123 3393
The Kaleidoscope Plus Group
0800 059 0123
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