What’s new:
Following the successful completion of their training in November, Lincolnshire Cricket will have 16 dedicated and fully qualified Mental Health First Aiders available to provide support quickly to people in our cricketing network when they are most in need of help. Locations where we will have provision are highlighted below:
Countywide mental health support coverage such as this is ground-breaking for recreational cricket and Lincolnshire Cricket are very proud to be leading the way in this important area and delighted to be building on the strong platform they have already established.
Why is it important:
In the same way that we all have physical health, we all have mental health too. Generally, sports people recognise the importance of keeping physically fit for their physical health but do not always acknowledge the importance of prioritising their own mental health. Poor mental health is a subject that many people struggle to talk about, despite so many of us struggling from time to time.
What has happened so far:
In 2019, a club in Lincolnshire lost 3 members to suicide. Determined to ensure such events did not reoccur, Lincs Cricket started an initiative to raise awareness, help clubs remove the stigma and encourage people to talk more openly about Mental Health. This included creating an awareness video, producing a poster of helplines to display in every club as well as running free awareness courses, with the aim of having a trained ‘go to’ person in as many clubs as possible. To date 69 people connected with cricket in Lincolnshire have received this Level 1 awareness accreditation.
How was this made possible:
This was all made possible thanks to the ‘Top2Bottom’ fundraising campaign in 2021 and 2022 where individuals connected with cricket in Lincolnshire raised funds by running a series of ultramarathons across the East Midlands. Funds raised were used to train our own qualified tutor of NUCO training to deliver accredited mental health courses in-house, enabling more people to be trained (69 so far in Lincolnshire and 73 from other counties on behalf of the ECB).
Going forward:
Lincolnshire Cricket are extremely proud to have developed this county initiative around Mental Health and remain committed to providing support to the network around this subject.