Publish date: 31 October 2024
Ahmed Hassan, Ashwin Das, Babak Rafiei, Ewan, Pedromar Junior, Raul Hasanov, Sheriff Bello - Coach: Babak Rafiei
West London NHS Trust and QPR FC jointly hosted a football tournament on Saturday to raise awareness of mental health.
The tournament invited service users, NHS staff and community members to join as individuals or teams for the one-day 5 aside football tournament, with QPR Football Club and local clubs, on Saturday 26 October, at PowerLeague pitches, in Shepherd's Bush.
Many service users, NHS staff members from West London as well as other NHS Trusts – CNWL NHS FT, Minds United FC and Chelsea & Kensington FC turned up to play with local community members. The football tournament was followed by a fun social with prizes.
West London’s two teams won their own leagues, and received Championship medals, a tour in QPR FC stadium and refreshments in one of the stadium’s VIP rooms.
The fun tournament was part of West London NHS Trust’s collaboration with Queens Park Rangers Football Club’s charity, QPR in the Community Trust, and the Footy Addicts. Together they offer a weekly Football for wellbeing hub, aimed at offering men in West London another avenue for supporting their mental health and wellbeing.
Research shows that playing football can improve our mental health, increasing our supply of serotonin, the hormones that make us happy, improving confidence and reducing social isolation among other things.
Babak Rafiei, Senior Peer Support Worker who is part of the team behind the project said:
“We were all winners in that tournament. Thank you to every service user, NHS staff member, and our partners who came out to support raising awareness of mental health. Every week we see men in the community improving their physical and mental wellbeing through playing football and being physically active. This tournament gave us an opportunity to bring even more people together for a good cause. We need to keep talking about and looking after our mental wellbeing. Football is a great way of doing both.”
For more information on our Football for wellbeing hub, read our news story or email Babak Rafiei wlt.footballforwellbeinghub@nhs.net