On World Mental Health Day, the Athletic Club Foundation carries out a double initiative: an awareness campaign that highlights its daily work to improve the quality of life of people with mental illnesses and a special pass in Thinking for educational centres
That Athletic Club is much more than football is demonstrated on days like today, World Mental Health Day… and also throughout the year, thanks to its RSM (Mental Health Network) project. This is a project aimed at mental health patients, mostly with serious mental disorders, over the age of 14.
Mikel is one of them and in the awareness campaign presented today by Fundazioa he tells us what the initiative consists of and how it helps him to improve his quality of life.
Three concepts are key to this project: the use of sport as a therapeutic tool, value-based care and humanisation.
Day by day, week by week, it consists of a series of indoor football, Walking Football and multisport training sessions, developed in the Osakidetza Day Centres and other associations linked to the Basque public health network, led by technicians from the Athletic Club Foundation.
At the end of the season, the Futbola Buruan cup brings together more than five hundred participants of the RSM project in Lezama, during a celebratory morning that reinforces their self-esteem and contributes to their re-socialisation process.
Special screening of ‘Tigrar’
In addition, the Athletic Club Foundation has taken advantage of this week’s celebration of its Thinking Football Film Festival to organise a special screening for educational centres – the second to be held, after the one dedicated to gender equality – focused on highlighting the importance of mental health in young people and adolescents.
At 11:00 a.m., the film ‘Tigrar’ will be screened in the Sala BBK in front of around 400 students. After the screening, two former Athletic players, Ander Murillo and Joseba Garmendia, will talk about the film and their personal experiences related to the importance of mental health.
