A man who has spent years battling mental health issues says the regular walks set up with his friend around Spalding are having more of a positive impact on him than any treatment he\u2019s had before.<\/p>\n
Paul and Wes have launched Walk If Off in the town with the idea of men getting together just to talk and enjoy a bit of exercise.<\/p>\n
Wes\u2019s problems culminated in him attempting to take his own life nine months ago.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, he survived and now wants others to join him and Paul on works every Monday at 9.30pm and on Tuesdays alternately at 9.30am and 4pm from outside the gates to the Sir Halley Stewart Field. Next Tuesday\u2019s is at 4pm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to mental health groups and asked if there\u2019s a real need for mental health support for men in this area and they all say absolutely,\u201d said Wes. \u201cI\u2019ve struggled with my mental health since I was 12 or 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through various health services and ended up in Boston crisis centre, but nothing has worked as well for me personally as this.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust talking about my mental health has been great.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned if things aren\u2019t going well to just get away and go for a walk. That\u2019s where all this has come from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wes and Paul met through football, the latter a well known referee on the local scene.<\/p>\n
Wes has recently been given a job by organising pitch bookings at Spalding United, something he says he loves.<\/p>\n
Paul has a history of mental health issues in his family and feels he\u2019s had periods where he\u2019s turned to alcohol as a result of it, without realising it at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to try and erase the stigma of mental health and get more men talking about their mental health problems,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to clam up or tell someone to \u2018man up\u2019 That\u2019s a horrible term and instead of \u2018man up\u2019 it can eventually be \u2018man down\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the effect that losing someone through mental health problems can have on young families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to say \u2018walk it off mate\u2019 instead, just like if you get a knock in football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not professionals, but we can also direct people to them to get the relevant help if needed. We\u2019re not the answer, but we are an option; not just a walk but an opportunity to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re joined on many occasions by John Herd who they\u2019ve nicknamed \u2018the navigator\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good excuse to get out of the house and talking to others, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who has spent years battling mental health issues says the regular walks set up with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-599169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}