FREE tickets to football matches will be dished out on the NHS to people with depression under a landmark mental health scheme announced today.
Patients at GP surgeries in Gloucestershire will be given the chance to attend games at National League side Forest Green Rovers as an alternative to medication.
The scheme is designed to wean those suffering from conditions off addictive and get them out of the house to meet pals.
Some 91 million prescriptions for the sadness-busting drugs were dispensed in 2024, the equivalent of around three every second.
A record amount of were also handed to children, including almost 4000 prescriptions for those under ten in 2024.
The new footy proposal follows suggestions by MP Dr Simon Opher, a key advocate for social prescriptions for patients with mild .
Dr Opher, 61, has previously championed NHS-sanctioned comedy nights and gardening to help improve mental wellbeing.
The Labour MP for Stroud, in , joined widescale conern over the increasing number of people being prescribed pills where doing so could be avoided.
Dr Opher found that 80 per cent of patients who are prescribed social activities instead of drugs continue with them even after their ‘course’ runs out.
Many patients say meeting new people through their chosen activity, including exercise, walking groups or cooking clubs, reduces lonliness and makes them feel better.
The doctor went on: “I do think there’s something about watching football which does give you a sense of community.
“I think one of the biggest problems in our society is social isolation.
“Football is about socialising and roaring on your team, getting excited, taking yourself out of your own life for a short while, and living through something else.”;
, who appointed tough-tackling ex-Wales midfielder as manager earlier this month, have provided the tickets for free as part of the trial.
BBC pundit and radio host Savage, 50, has previously spoken openly about his own mental struggles as a player and coach.
In 2017, he said: “As soon as the lights go out and the mic is off, I go back into my shell. I go home, I worry. I am insecure, very insecure.”;
“Lots of current and ex-footballers, or just people in the workplace, suffer from these mental health issues but don’t speak.”;
The club, which boasts of being Britain’s most eco-friendly footy side, were relegated from the Football League to the National League last year - but are looking to be promoted back to this season.
Club owner and major Labour donor Dale Vince said: “I think it’d be a great thing if football clubs up and down the country could reach out to people and do this.
“Men typically don’t really talk about their issues, that’s the thing, and you get loneliness and things like that as well.”;
Dr Opher’s concerns about over-prescribing began early in his career as a GP in 1995.
He said: “I’d started seeing there are a lot of people depressed out there, a lot of people with low mood, so I started putting a lot of them on antidepressants or referring them to mental health.
“Quite a few of them, one in four, maybe even more, would just come back no better, but with intractable problems.
“What I realised is that tablets didn’t help them, we had nothing to help them.
“I thought we needed to try something different and do a different behaviour.”;
Football clubs have previously been involved in so-called social prescriptions.
In 2019, side ran a “Men’s Kitchen”; club for men who were recently divorced or bereaved and suffering from social isolation.
put on walking groups for fans struggling to get out of the house, while organised a kickabout for supporters with .
