\n Mr\u00a0Vince\u00a0has owned the club since 2010.\n <\/p>\n
\n The initiative is part of a move by Dr Opher who has pioneered offering social prescribing to patients with mild or moderate depression instead of antidepressants.\n <\/p>\n
\n Both comedy and gardening have previously been prescribed to patients by Dr Opher.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said on average around four-in-five tend to stick with prescribed activities, with one of the main benefits of tackling loneliness.\n <\/p>\n
\n (Image: Karl Mackie) Dr Opher said:\u00a0\u201cI do think there\u2019s something about watching football which does give you a sense of community.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think one of the biggest problems in our society is social isolation.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s really quite toxic, actually, and it\u2019s created in the modern world by social media.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPubs aren\u2019t so popular, we don\u2019t get out as much, we don\u2019t live in extended families, so that is very bad for you.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou can quantify it, it\u2019s the same health risk as smoking about 20 cigarettes a day. It\u2019s really bad.\n <\/p>\n
\n (Image: Karl Mackie) \u201cOne of the things here is just getting people out and socialising.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u201cFootball isn\u2019t going to be for everyone.\n <\/p>\n
\n “Nothing is, but we need a range of options.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFootball 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Dr Opher has previously spoken about his concerns on the over prescription of antidepressants.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said he does not believe they should be given to patients if they have moderate or mild symptoms.\n <\/p>\n
\n The number of people of antidepressants rose by 2.1% last year, compared to 2022\/23.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIf you\u2019ve got severe depression then I would always recommend antidepressants, but a large majority of people have got what they call mild to moderate depression, and the tendency at the moment is to give them tablets, because there\u2019s no mental health support really, it can take six months to get it, and you feel like you need to do something.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve got to a stage where we\u2019ve got 8.7 million people on antidepressants, so we need to try something else.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Patients at a dozen surgeries in the county near Forest Green\u2019s The New Lawn ground in Nailsworth will be given the chance to be referred to go to a game.\n <\/p>\n
\n The initiative is planned to run for the whole season, beginning with the side\u2019s first home game against Yeovil Town on August 16.\n <\/p>\n
\n The tickets are being donated for free by Forest Green.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mr\u00a0Vince\u00a0bought the club in 2010, and has since turned them into the world\u2019s first vegan, and carbon-neutral football club.\n <\/p>\n
\n Under his ownership the long-time non-league club reached League One, before suffering two back-to-back relegations.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI think it\u2019d be a great thing if football clubs up and down the country could reach out to people and do this.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMen typically don\u2019t really talk about their issues, that\u2019s the thing, and you get loneliness and things like that as well.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn my life I\u2019ve had periods of my life where I\u2019ve been a bit fed up, and excluded \u2026 a bit down from time to time, it\u2019s easy to spiral downwards when you\u2019re not in contact with people and I just wanted to do something with that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u201cForest Green has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I\u2019m keen to share that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Dr Opher\u2019s scepticism towards widespread antidepressant prescription came after he began his career as a GP in 1995.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr\u00a0Vince\u00a0has owned the club since 2010. The initiative is part of a move by Dr Opher who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-16784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}