HSG Announces Sponsorship of English Football Club FC United of Manchester
It’s probably not immediately obvious why a consultancy firm from the other side of the Atlantic would sponsor an English non-league football club, but as the company’s founder, Jason Helgerson explains “in the health and social care sector we talk a lot about the social determinants of health. Good health, both mental and physical, is determined by more than access to health care – it is effected massively by social and community networks and factors such as employment, housing, education and access to leisure facilities. And we reckon that FC United’s mental well-being team represents an excellent example of how exercise and social networks can support good mental health and we are delighted to be able to support them.”
FC’s sport development manager Tom Conroy described how “the mental well-being side has grown from five or six players to a regular 20 each week and provides a really important session for all of the players” and added that “this sponsorship from HSG is very much appreciated and will not only enable us to move on to the next level, but will integrate the team into the wider club, support the development of individual players, and provide them with competitive fixtures.”
One of HSG’s specialties is in advising health and social care organizations on value-based health care, which represents a very different approach to funding hospitals and other healthcare providers that seeks to reward them for helping patients to live healthier lives rather than simply paying them a fixed fee for each patient that they treat or the size of the population they serve. The “value” is derived by measuring these outcomes against what it actually costs to deliver them.
And, as Jason points out, FC United’s mental well-being football team represents a wonderful example of how doing something differently can not only improve the health of people with mental health problems but also save money for the already hard-pressed NHS.
Mental health problems can affect anyone, with one in four experiencing a mental illness in any year and more than 10% of the population suffering from depression at any one time. Playing football can help people to recover, help to manage symptoms, and improve the quality of people’s lives by making friends, keeping fit and staying healthy. And it can help too in breaking the stigma that surrounds mental illness by bringing people together and making them feel part of their community.
The Mental Health Foundation notes that for people with depression “studies have shown that exercise can be as effective as medication or psychotherapy” in relieving stress. Antidepressant drugs are estimated to cost the NHS more than £5 million per week and an appointment with a psychotherapist will typically cost the local NHS a couple of hundred pounds but playing football on a regular basis with a group of mates costs a mere fraction of that – good news not only for our mental well-being footballers but the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership who are in charge of the city’s £6 billion budget for health and social care. HSG has done work with the Health and Social Care Partnership in the last few years, supporting its efforts to move to a place-based, fully integrated care model.
The investment by Helgerson Solutions Group will make a huge difference for the mental well-being team, not only will it be sufficient to pay for pitch hire for the whole 2019-20 season but it will also fund ten monthly coaching sessions for the team delivered by a qualified coach together with kit, balls and four friendly matches to be played at Broadhurst Park against other mental well-being teams.
