Football clubs should play a bigger role in tackling the youth mental health crisis, ministers are being told.

Nearly 1,000 young people have received support through a scheme involving 20 football club charities, offering up to six months of one-to-one mentoring.

Calls to expand the scheme came as Alison McGovern, the mental health minister, signalled support for help outside clinics.

She highlighted the sense of belonging she gained from supporting Liverpool at Anfield, where she goes to “shout my head off” as part of achieving a “feeling of community”.

The Talking Tactics scheme, run by social enterprise Advantage Mentoring, supports those aged 11 to 21 with mild to moderate mental health problems.

Aiming to prevent escalation

Sessions at clubs’ facilities focus on anxiety, anger and relationships. and aim to prevent difficulties escalating and reduce the need for specialist NHS care.

The debate comes ahead of a government-commissioned review of mental health, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, expected this week, and amid warnings that Britain faces a mental health catastrophe.

Led by Prof Peter Fonagy, a clinical psychologist, the review is expected to call for less medicalisation of distress and for earlier help without requiring a diagnosis to unlock support.

A separate review led by Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, is also due soon, examining how to prevent young people falling out of education, employment or training. It will also consider how to help those already outside these routes, with a particular focus on mental health and disability.

At a Labour fringe meeting last week, Ms McGovern described going to Anfield to “shout my head off”.

“We’re coming together to be together to get that fellow feeling,” she said, calling for greater “participation in society”.

She also called for new ways to help struggling children and teenagers outside traditional services, saying: “We need to open up access to mental health support.”

Young people should be able to enter a “non-clinical environment” and have “a supportive conversation with somebody who knows what they’re doing”, she said.

Ms McGovern described an “absolutely perfect storm” facing children whose teachers struggled to secure help without a diagnosis, while assessment waiting lists grew.

More expertise within schools could help children without necessarily requiring referrals to psychiatrists or psychologists, she said.

‘We’ve got to do something’

The minister promised a new mental health strategy by Christmas.

“I don’t want to live in a country where things were better in the past,” she said. “So it’s urgent. We’ve got to do something about it.”

Numbers of children and young people awaiting ADHD assessments in NHS mental health services have risen more than tenfold in under seven years.

Prof Sir Simon Wessely, a psychiatrist and co-chairman of the forthcoming Fonagy review, said anxiety and depression among young people had risen steadily for two decades.

Demand for ADHD and autism assessments had been “absolutely accelerating”, he told the session, distinguishing this from underlying prevalence, where up-to-date research was lacking.

He warned that teachers were being prevented from acting by an emphasis on diagnoses.

“They’re not allowed to do things until they’ve got a diagnosis. But they can’t get a diagnosis because there’s a million people on the waiting list,” he said.

Advantage Mentoring says 96 per cent of participants do not subsequently need an intervention from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Konrad Deckers Dowber, its managing director, said football clubs could reach youngsters who might never approach conventional services.

He said: “By bringing preventative support into spaces where young people already feel comfortable and connected, we can reach those who might otherwise never seek help.”

Ministers should expand such programmes if serious about shifting from crisis intervention towards prevention, he said.

In the past six years, Advantage Mentoring has worked with 20 football club charities, supported nearly 1,000 young people and enabled the employment of 50 mentors.

Community practitioners help participants cope with stress and prepare for education, employment or training. Some receive support while waiting for clinical help.

Others have needs the programme aims to meet outside specialist services, creating additional capacity without drawing on NHS clinicians’ time.

An evaluation by Anna Freud’s Child Outcomes Research Consortium found that 88 per cent of young people improved their everyday functioning.

Seventy-two per cent reported greater life satisfaction, while progress was recorded towards 88 per cent of participants’ personal goals.

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