PAPYRUS - Suicide Prevention

It’s Good to Talk at Glossop Rugby Union Football Club 

Glossop Rugby Union Football Club have always taken Mental Health Issues very seriously and are now proud to have initiated a long term plan to raise awareness and offer support, across all age groups and genders. 

Much time and effort is given to improving and maintaining our physical health, with regular training, gym sessions and coaching programmes, but how much time is actually is spent discussing and looking after own our mental health? 

For many reasons, people may feel pressure and are struggling with their own issues in everyday life, especially after the past 2 years dealing with COVID and the upheaval and isolation that has touched many lives, across all age groups. Many just keep on going and trying to cope with what they are dealing with as feel there is little option to change their circumstances or find the way to  open up to friends or family about how they are feeling and then before they know it, they are in a downward spiral of hopelessness and sadness. 

At Glossop RUFC, we are very blessed to have a strong bond between our members, friends and families and often refer to ourselves as the “Glossop Rugby Family”. Many of us have also gone through difficult times and struggled with things that affected our mental health and often found someone in the club we feel comfortable to talk to and who has helped. This is not always the case however, and there have been times when people felt they had nowhere to turn. 

We wanted to play a small part in trying to change this, to understand how we could raise awareness of mental health issues and the potential suicidal thoughts that some people may be feeling and find a way to offer some sort of support, or a friendly ear. 

So we created a Mental Health sub group whose role is to look at how we go about this, within our club and wider community. 

We already have a robust Safeguarding Policy in place and have now created Mental Health Strategy Policies to align with this and to look further at what we can do to be more aware. 

We were delighted when a close friend and member of the club offered funds towards this work and specifically focus on 3 things: 

• Raise awareness of mental health issues within the club and wider community 
• Provide support for the Mini & Junior sectors of the club 
• Provide a lasting memorial to one of our former young players, who tragically took his life at the age of 18. 

So, we felt the first step was to receive professional training ourselves, by organising a series of mental health awareness courses over a 3 year period, with the vision that we will have key people within all sections of the club who will be known and accessible to anyone who may be struggling, needs to talk and where appropriate, we can support to get further help. 

 
We are very proud to be working very closely with PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide, the UK charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people. 

PAPYRUS was founded in 1997 by a group of bereaved parents, who had lost children to suicide. The founding parents shared core beliefs that suicide is preventable and that those of us with lived experience of suicide have a valuable and unique contribution to make to the wider conversation around suicide. 

Since then PAPYRUS has grown into a UK-wide charity with offices in North West England, South West England, West Midlands, London, Northern Ireland, North Wales, South Wales and Scotland. 

Secondly, we are very proud to have created a special Senior Colts annual award, as a lasting legacy to our young player who felt there was no hope, and to try to highlight that when someone seems to have everything going for them, the inner struggle can be very real. The Award will be given to a Senior Colt who embodies the values of true Sportsmanship and Allegiance to their peers and the values and beliefs the club stand for and the award for the 2021 / 2022 season was presented to Max Forte on Sunday 1st May. 

Thirdly, we will aim to provide awareness training to as many of our coaches as possible; provide much needed kit and equipment to the Mini &Junior teams with the focus on “looking out for your mates” as a way of people being a little more aware of a friend who they may recognise is not feeling too great. 

At Glossop RUFC, we are very proud to be able to initiate these steps and hope it may enable someone to be a little more aware of other peoples inner struggles and also offer somewhere to safely ask for help. 

If you want to get involved, find out more or feel you or someone you know may be struggling and needs help, please get in touch. 

Links: 

Papyrus UK Suicide Prevention | Prevention of Young Suicide (papyrus-uk.org)  

HOPELINEUK –

if you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned for a young person who might be, you and contact HOPEELINEUK for confidential support and practical advice.

9am-midnight every day of the year 

Call: 0800 0684141

Text: 07860039967

Email:pat@papyrus-uk-org