Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 will take place from 13 to 19 May, on the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”.
Squash has many reported benefits for mental health including: boosting your self-esteem, relieving tension in the body and enhancing your sleep (sourced from England Squash).
One of the core components of PSAF’s work is related to wellbeing support at all levels within squash:
Health and Wellness Ambassadors
Playlist
The PSA Foundation provides a health and wellness programme which brings together players to tackle the well-being challenges on Tour.
Professional sport presents unique pressures for athletes and the aim for this programme is the players will spearhead a Tour wide effort to share struggles, advice, experiences and support each other.
This initiative is designed to provide an ongoing process of safeguarding the health and wellbeing of players on Tour.
At the PSA Foundation, we believe that there are no better people to help inform on the challenges of competing on Tour than the players themselves and the health and wellness programme is testament to that.
The programme is formed of 13 players who will be ambassadors from different tiers of the PSA Tour.
Squash for Development Organisations
Organisations around the world that are using squash as a vehicle for social change through academic tutoring, nutrition support and much more to help underserved populations around the world.
Sport has been linked to reducing stress levels, and many of these organisations provide key mental health support in their communities- utilising squash as a catalyst to make a positive difference.
As the charitable arm of the PSA Tour, we partner with these non-profit programs and provide resources and support they otherwise might not have.
Sporting Chance
Sporting Chance provide services for current and retired professional squash players competing on the PSA Tour, fully funded by the PSA Foundation.
One-to-one counselling is a form of talking therapy designed to move individuals forward to a place of balanced emotional wellbeing. To facilitate treatment, Sporting Chance has a large network of highly qualified and fully insured counsellors.
All the counsellors in their network operate within guidelines and principles established with Sporting Chance; some are ex-professional sportsmen or women who have trained as therapists or counsellors after retiring from sport.
What to expect when you contact Sporting Chance:
If you are making the initial call, it will be answered by a trained counsellor in English
Alternatively, you can complete their contact form and a trained counsellor will give you a call in your choice of language
During the initial call or message, let them know you are a squash player from the PSA Tour.
You can say where you are calling from, so that future correspondence or sessions with a counsellor work for you and your time zone.
If you’re having any follow up phone or video calls, these will happen within 24 hours of the initial call, from a trained therapist in a field relating to your current situation.
