Leisure operator signs up to mental health charter

13th October 2015

A Sheffield charity has highlighted its commitment to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing by signing up to a national sports initiative.

Sheffield City Trust (SCT), which operates leisure venues across the region including Ponds Forge International Sports Centre and the English Institute of Sport Sheffield, has become a member of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation. The scheme, created by the Sport and Recreation Alliance in partnership with the Professional Players Federation and mental health charity Mind, shows how sport can use its collective power to tackle mental ill health and the stigma surrounding it. It aims to ensure that the sports sector can help make mental health a commonly understood matter and actively tackle discrimination to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Rob Womack, healthy partnerships manager at SCT, said: -By becoming a part of this national scheme, we aim to show how sport and recreation not only improves physical health but can also contribute to good mental health and wellbeing as well. -SCT believes it is vital that everyone has the chance to take part in and benefit from sport and recreation. We therefore aim to promote and adopt good mental health policies and best practice to ensure that people affected have the same opportunities across our venues than anyone else. SCT's membership to the Charter comes ahead of World Mental Health Day, which takes place on 10 October 2015. SCT has previously joined forces with charity MIND to promote mental health initiatives in Sheffield and also teamed up with Heeley City Farm, which works with people with mental health difficulties, to develop a small plot of land adjacent to Heeley Pool. The Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation has already attracted support from big names in the sports industry, including Tour de France winner and Olympic medallist, Chris Froome, Paralympic cyclist Jon-Allen Butterworth and former professional footballer Jimmy Bullard. For more information about the Charter, visit http://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/mental-health-charter. For more information about SCT, visit www.sivltd.com.