Corporate social responsibility and mental health: The Premier League football Imagine Your Goals programme

Abstract

Football is increasingly used to facilitate recovery in mental health services, often in partnership with football clubs. However, few clubs have made mental health part of their corporate social responsibility programmes until recently. We report the impact on participants of the 'Imagine Your Goals' programme, run by 16 Premier League football clubs in conjunction with England's Time to Change programme to reduce mental health-related stigma and discrimination. Mixed methods evaluation used pre/post measures of well-being, access to social capital, focus groups held early on and towards the end of the two-year programmes, and questionnaires for coaching staff. There were no significant changes to participants' mental well-being scores between baseline and follow-up, nor to the total number of social resources accessible through their networks. However, there was a statistically significant increase at follow-up in the mean score of the personal skills subscale of the Resource Generator-UK. Participants' individual skills were also higher at follow-up. Qualitative data showed programmes had largely met participants' expectations in terms of socializing, providing structure and improving fitness levels, exceeded expectations in relationships with coaching staff and additional activities, but did not always meet them in improving football skills. Participants varied in their knowledge of exit opportunities, depending on which club's programme they attended. A minority of clubs reported difficulties in recruitment and concerns about planning for the future of the projects. Football clubs and the charitable foundations they set up can successfully deliver programmes to people with mental health problems which improve access to personal skills social capital and have other potential benefits.

Tackling mental health: the role of professional football clubs

“…The 'Imagine Your Goals' (IYG) programme (Henderson et al 2014) in an ongoing mental health intervention which aims to improve social inclusion and well-being for people with mental illnesses, as well as tackle mental health stigma and discrimination. It is important to note that recovery from mental illness refers to not only a reduction in symptoms, but achieving functional recovery through improvement in psychosocial functioning (Anthony 1993).…”

“…Professional football clubs' Football in the Community (FitC) programmes often use football as an activity to engage participants in mental health interventions (Henderson et al 2014). Research provides evidence of how football can support the prevention, early intervention, treatment and rehabilitation of a range of diseases across the lifespan , Bangsbo et al 2014).…”

Understanding strategic decision-making through a multi-paradigm perspective

“…First of all, the professional sport industry fosters social value, including improved physical (Pringle et al, 2013) and mental (Henderson et al, 2014) health, enhanced education (Lambourne, 2006), and social inclusion (Jarvie, 2003). Given their high visibility, however, professional teams in particular have been accused of irresponsibility and living beyond their means, as reflected in the growing instances of peculiar governance structures (Walters and Hamil, 2013), irresponsible practices (Hu et al, 2012), and financial mismanagement (Dimitropoulos, 2011).…”

Professional football clubs could deliver pragmatic physical activity interventions to promote mental health

“…Clubs programmes have engaged hard-to-reach populations across the lifespan,2 supported clinically significant weight reduction through cost-effective interventions 3. This approach offers potential for delivering benefits for health and social well-being4 for participants with a mental illness 5…”