\n David Skaith said he shut himself off after his father, Bob, died during the pandemic and reconnecting with sport helped him return to normality.\n<\/p>\n
\n The mayor told The Press it was not until he almost reached \u201cbreaking point\u201d that he started to speak out about his mental health.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said speaking to others about his mental health and playing sport again had \u201csuch a massive impact\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI know the power of what sport has done for me,\u201d he said, \u201cand I want to be able to give that same offering to other people who maybe in a very similar situation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n ‘I know the power of what sport has done for me,’ says mayor David Skaith(Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n The Labour mayor is now investing millions to help communities become healthier.\n<\/p>\n
\n His campaign looks to support problems around men\u2019s mental health in addition to regional challenges such as access to activity, sport and the outdoors, and improve active travel around the county.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Skaith said the funding will be open to community groups and local authorities.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the campaign will also help understand the problems the region faces around access to mental health support.\n<\/p>\n
\n It aims to enhance early intervention mental health services in the community to avoid people only seeking help once they have reached a crisis point.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to get to crisis point,\u201d Mr Skaith said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to get to a point where they have, literally, suffered for so long [and] in silence, that they feel like there is, unfortunately, only one way out.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe know that the biggest killer in men under 50 is suicide. That is a shocking statistic that cannot continue.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut part of that is a lot of men \u2013 like myself \u2013 we just don\u2019t seek help. We just don\u2019t see it as normal to go and talk about how we\u2019re feeling.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cUntil I found it a very normal thing to do, I would be in the same role \u2013 I would never talk about how I was feeling, whereas now I can very openly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Skaith said supporting people\u2019s mental health would also bring economic benefits.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf people don\u2019t have their health and their wellbeing, how inclined are they to go to college, to go develop a new skill, to go look for work? It\u2019s all interwoven,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Proposals to give mayors control over hospitals welcomed<\/p>\n
\n The campaign comes weeks after it was announced that local government secretary Steve Reed is considering giving mayors control over more local services, including hospitals.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Skaith said he supported the proposals, adding: \u201cWe\u2019ve already started to plan for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe know it\u2019s not happening tomorrow, but we know what our offering would be in terms of health and how we could play a role in that.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is partly why we started to look at this element \u2013 how we can use sport activity, men\u2019s mental health \u2013 to support that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Recommended reading:\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Skaith said the combined authority is also \u201cdeveloping a plan about health on the high street\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n This, he said, would focus on bringing hospital services, such as blood tests and even some cancer screenings, into high streets to reduce demand on hospitals.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the proposals would help more people be seen by health professionals, including those who live in rural areas.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cReporting of cancer levels are much lower in rural communities because people are not seeking that service [as] it just isn\u2019t there,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The Samaritans say that whatever you’re going through, you can call them for free, at any time, from any phone, on 116 123.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Skaith said he shut himself off after his father, Bob, died during the pandemic and reconnecting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-192935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}