Wolves Foundation: Tackling suicide prevention
Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you, it is much, much more important than that.’
The famous quote attributed to legendary former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, albeit one which was undoubtedly delivered without expecting it to carry a literal meaning.
Of course, football will always be massively important to supporters. And to a town and city. But life, and indeed mental health, is of course far more important.
Back in September, a new ‘Together Against Suicide’ campaign was launched by the Premier League in partnership with the Samaritans.
One of the key influences in the campaign was broadcaster Roman Kemp, driven to use the power of football to help raise awareness of suicide prevention following the death of his best friend. Not to mention the harrowing statistic that, every 90 minutes, the length of a football match, someone in the UK takes their own life.
Wolves are one of 11 Premier League clubs signed up to receive funding from the Premier League to deliver the campaign. This involves providing tailored environments to offer fans the opportunity to talk in safe, non-judgemental settings, as well as referring them on to trusted support organisations. This also dovetails with the club’s own Head 4 Health project, designed to help adults improve their mental health and wellbeing, which has benefitted almost 2,000 people since its launch in 2019.
This weekend, at Sunday’s Premier League game with Newcastle, Wolves are shining a spotlight on this campaign, to make fans aware that when attending a game at Molineux, if they feel they need to disclose that they are struggling, or need support with their mental health, then they can.
Suicide prevention training has been embedded into all steward training this season, meaning more than 400 stewards are now appropriately trained. On every matchday, each stand will have one steward wearing a green armband who can be approached specifically as part of the ‘Together against Suicide’ campaign. At that point, they can then be referred on to one of the matchday safeguarding team to decide on the next course of action, which could be to refer in to Head 4 Health or a different agency.
In the lead-up to the fixture, Wolves Foundation and staff have been sharing powerful stories from participants who have spoken about their suicidal thoughts, and been helped by Head 4 Health.
One of those stories is from John Martin, a Wolves fan for over 60 years, who has twice come close to taking his own life.
Ultimately, and despite feeling plenty of nerves before managing to walk through the door for the first time, he attended Head 4 Health, and, from there, he has never looked back.
“If I hadn't walked through that door, if I hadn't come for Head 4 Health, I certainly wouldn't be here now, because I know I would have gone back to where I was at some point, and on one occasion I would have done it, I would have gone through with it,” John explained.
“I’d spent the days before coming up with every excuse under the sun as to why I shouldn't go. When I did park outside, it took me half an hour to get through the door. But, you know, it was the best thing I ever did, and I will say that categorically, because what I found was group of folks, a group of men with similar stories, not all with suicide - a lot of them had other issues.
“There was anxiety because I really, really didn't know what to expect, but in the end, I had to do it because I didn’t want to go through all that again.
“What pushed me through that door was that I didn’t want to feel like I felt again, and I wanted to be able to do something about it.”
As part of the awareness on Sunday, Foundation and Samaritans staff will be in the Fan Zone chatting to fans and distributing cards with relevant contact details, messages will play on the big screen and the players will wear special warm-up shirts.
Out of Darkness Cometh Light. Don’t let suicide take the final whistle.