Episode 65

Ensuring mental health support is easily accessible for footballers.

Michael Bennett is the current director of player welfare for the Professional Footballers Association (PFA). Before his professional career came to an end, Michael made around 200 appearances as a professional footballer for clubs including Charlton, Wimbledon, Brighton, Millwall and Brentford. A knee injury ultimately brought Michael's career to an end, and the difficulties he faced towards the end of his playing career has informed his role as the lead on mental health support for the footballers union.

Michael has held the position for just over a decade. Having qualified as a counsellor and psychotherapist, he was appointed director of player welfare in 2011. Since that time, Michael has researched, devised and implemented the PFA's current welfare strategy for all registered footballers.

In today's episode we discover what support is available for professional footballers, how they access it, and what barriers there are for players currently playing within the professional game. We have heard from numerous footballers over the past 14 months about their experiences with the PFA, both good and bad. Now it's time for a representative of the PFA to have their say, on the work they do to ensure footballers within the game have the appropriate mental health provisions.

** If you are a footballer wanting mental health support the PFA has 24/7 wellbeing services available via a hotline - 07500 000 777 **

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If you have been affected by any of the themes discussed in today's episode, we have listed some organisations below who are there if you need to talk:

Samaritans Call 116 132 for free

https://www.samaritans.org/

Papyrus UK Call 0800 068 41 41

Papyrus Website

CALM ZONE 0800 58 58 58

https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/helpline/

MIND 0300 123 3393

https://www.mind.org.uk/

The Kaleidoscope Plus Group 0800 059 0123

https://www.kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk/