Mind responds to The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's new strategy
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced a new strategy for sport from grassroots to elite level.
The strategy highlights mental health as one of five stand out areas where sport and physical activity can make a significant social contribution and Geoff Heyes, Policy and Campaigns Manager at Mind, says:
"Mind welcomes the Government’s ‘New Strategy for an Active Nation’ and its recognition of mental health as one of the five stand out areas where sport and physical activity can make its greatest social contribution.
"Although the benefits of physical activity for physical health are widely acknowledged, the positive impact it has on mental health and the role it can play in building resilience is often less well understood.
"In placing mental wellbeing at the heart of this new strategy, the Government recognises the positive impact sport and physical activity can have on our mental wellbeing and ensures that greater efforts will be made to enable people with mental health problems to participate in physical activity.
"Mind’s Get Set to Go programme, is an excellent example of a service that works across all five of the strategy’s outcomes. We are pleased to be working with Sport England and the sport and leisure sector to ensure that having a mental health problem is never a barrier to enjoying sport."