Mental health and physical activity toolkit
Our toolkit aims to increase the number of sport, physical activity and mental health providers who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to support and engage people experiencing mental health problems in physical activity.
The toolkit is made up of a variety of guides. Each one provides guidance, tools, templates and good practice case studies to help organisations provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for people experiencing mental health problems to be physically active.
We have developed a pre-recorded webinar which will support you to access the 10 guides, including recordings from our physical activity team, our partners and experts by experience.
Guide 1: Introduction to mental health
This guide will help anyone working or volunteering in sport and physical activity to support and engage people experiencing mental health problems.
Guide 1 tools and templates
Guide 1 case studies
Guide 2: Physical activity and mental health
This guide has information on the relationship between physical activity, sport and mental health.
Guide 3: Involving people with lived experience
This guide will help you involve people with lived experience of mental health problems in the design and delivery of your work.
Guide 4: Making physical activities inclusive
This guide includes information on how to make physical activity sessions and projects more inclusive, accessible and welcoming to people experiencing mental health problems.
Guide 4 tools and templates
Guide 4 case studies
Guide 5: Engaging people in physical activity
We’ve created this guide to upskill sport, physical activity and mental health providers on how to engage and support people experiencing mental health problems in physical activities.
Guide 5 tools and templates
- Get Set to Go Plan
- Checklist of ideas to keep participants engaged in sessions
- Get Set to Go referral form example
Guide 5 case studies
Guide 6: Engaging volunteers
This guide has tips and information on how to recruit and support volunteers who are experiencing mental health problems.
Guide 7: Measuring the impact of a service
We’ve put together this guide to help anyone running a physical activity service to measure the impact of physical activity on mental health.
Guide 8: Legal considerations
This guide has information about the legal considerations of delivering sport and physical activities to people experiencing mental health problems.
Guide 9: Safeguarding and mental health
This guide has tips on how to include safeguarding in your activities, to make sure they're safe for people experiencing mental health problems.
Guide 10: Funding and sustainability
This guide aims to help sport, physical activity and mental health providers to find funding for physical activity projects for people experiencing mental health problems. It also has tips on how to make services more sustainable.
Guide 10 tools and templates
Toolkit glossary
It's important that your language is as inclusive as possible. We've put together this document to define some of the key terms used within sport, physical activity mental health.
See our A-Z mental health page for a longer list of mental health terms.
Acknowledgements
This toolkit would not have been possible without the support, input and influence of many different people and organisations. A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the creation of this toolkit including:
- Our Lived Experience Physical Activity Advisory Group with special mention to Debbie Butler and Hameed Khan.
- Time to Change Champion Keith Thompson.
- Our Physical Activity and Mental Health Advisory Group.
- Everyone involved in Get Set to Go including participants, volunteers and our local Mind partners (with special mention to Melanie Campbell at Springfield Mind and Jacy Kilvert at Mind in Brighton and Hove.
- Experts in their fields including: Umar Ahmed (Health Improvement Wakefield Council), Jess Cook (Activity Alliance), Debra Cummins (Yorkshire Sport Foundation), Gail Curry (Age UK), Nicola Dean (Ann Craft Trust), Dr Amit Mistry (Royal College of Psychiatrists), Carolyn Plateau (Loughborough University), James Routen (Rampton Hospital) and Kyle Tunstall (Merseyside Sport Foundation).