Sports minister throws weight behind Mental Health Charter

Tracey Crouch, the minister of sport, has urged sector bodies and organisations to sign up to the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Mental Health Charter on the initiative’s second anniversary.

The MP for Chatham and Aylesford included improved mental health as one of the key outcomes in the government’s Sporting Future strategy, and has endorse the Charter, which provides sporting organisations with best practice.

Crouch said the document complements the work government is trying to do, and “encouraged any organisation not already a signatory to sign up.”

“Participating in sport and physical activity can have a huge benefit on a person’s mental wellbeing as well as their physical health,” she said.

“This is why we made mental health one of the key outcomes of the government’s sport strategy with public funding made available to projects that can deliver on this front.”

Since the Charter’s launch two years ago, 260 organisations have signed up and “committed to making their activities more open and accessible to everyone, including those with mental health problems.”

The steering group of the Mental Health Charter said it was important to “continue to raise the profile of sport and recreation’s role in helping to promote positive mental wellbeing.”

It added: “The Charter was established to bring sport and recreation organisations together to tackle the stigma that surrounds mental health.

“Sport and recreation has a responsibility to challenge this stigma and we will continue to keep working with organisations to help them put in place good mental health practice.”