Beautiful game offers a mental health intervention

Watching your football team play a nailbiting game may tend to raise the blood pressure, but joining in and playing has more benefits than many people might realise.

A new and very worthwhile study shows that, aside from the obvious physical health benefits, playing football can also have a positive effect on mental wellbeing and, in fact, can help people with severe disorders like psychosis.

The study noted the experiences of a total of 74 men who took part in a programme designed to assist those with mental health problems, many of them on anti-psychotic medication. Involving a unique collaboration between the HSE, the FAI, and a local authority, it reveals the benefits of football as an intervention in mental health.