See Change has joined up with the FAI in a campaign to bring awareness and encourage a national conversation about health issues. See Change is Ireland's national mental stigma reduction partnership working in collaboration with over 90 partner organisations and hundreds of volunteers and ambassadors to break the silence on mental health problems.
The campaign is centred around a video made by See Change, featuring many well-known Irish football stars, such as Shay Given, Stephen McPhail, Craig Sexton and Stephanie Roche. The video urges people to answer the ‘how are you?’ question, in a bid to encourage open conversation about mental health.
The campaign is welcome news after recent studies have shown that up to one in four Irish football players suffer from mental health issues. See Change notes that “you don’t need to be an expert to start talking about mental health or have all the answers. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to let someone know that you are there for them and simply listen.”
See Change has also published information on their website on how to best approach a conversation on mental health issues.
Written by Dylan Grimes Larkin
