West Ham United joined ITV1 show Loose Men’s Half-Time Team Talk campaign to tackle male mental health in the football arena.
Loose Men is an episode of the popular ITV1 lunchtime chat show Loose Women dedicated specifically to men’s issues. For International Men’s Day 2023, which celebrates the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities and raises awareness of men’s wellbeing, former West Ham manager Harry Redknapp joined the panel alongside radio hosts Vernon Kay and Ronan Keating and television star Ore Oduba.
Reporter, former TOWIE star and Hammers fan Mark Wright also visited London Stadium, where he sat down with legends Anton Ferdinand and Carlton Cole in the dressing room to talk about their own experiences of mental health and tackling the taboo around men opening up to one another.
“A winning emotion is very different to a personal emotion,” 2005 promotion winner Ferdinand observed. “When it becomes personal, it’s harder to speak about, especially as men. A lot of people going through mental health issues or depression don’t know they’re in it until they come out [and talk about it], and that’s the most dangerous part.
“We’re in a new world now where you’re more emotionally vulnerable. It’s driven by social media, so that’s why talking is so important to express and show the next generation that is OK to speak. There is all the more reason to speak now.”
“You’re not any weaker if you talk, and you’re actually helping others,” said Cole. “We’ve all got a responsibility for each other and that’s what we have to understand. We have to try and help each other if we can.”
Supported by mental health charity Mind, the Half-Time Team Talk is Loose Men’s first-ever campaign and aims to make talking about mental health a regular fixture, and for fans to check in and connect with each other while their teams are having their own half-time team talks using their TACTICS:
Visit ITVX to see the show in full and for more information on Loose Men’s Half-Time Team Talk.
Wright also spoke to fellow Hammer Alice Hendy, who set up R;pple Suicide Prevention after losing her only sibling Josh to suicide at just 21 years of age.
R;pple is an online tool that intervenes searches for self-harm or suicide and signposts the browser to mental health support services which has been added to West Ham staff computers and the Wifi at London Stadium and training facilities.
“It’s crucial that clubs take on this campaign, as sport and especially football are very social settings and a real opportunity to shine a light on mental health and suicide prevention,” she explained. “I can’t stress enough how important it is to talk, because if you don’t you just bottle it up and it gets worse.
“West Ham, for me, have just been phenomenal in supporting the charity.”
For more information about R;pple Suicide Prevention, please click here.
