South Yorkshire boys urged to speak out to cut suicide rate
Boys in South Yorkshire are being urged to speak out about their battles with mental health - to prevent more taking their own lives
Last updated 7th Mar 2017
It's feared boys in South Yorkshire battling mental health problems aren't coming forward for the help they need.
Childline say boys are six times less likely than girls to speak out about suicidal thoughts and feelings - and have more than double the suicide rate.
Wayne Rooney's now backing their new campaign to get boys talking about their feelings more.
Roger Reed's from Sheffield and Hallamshire FA - he says they've been trying to encourage openness in boys at grassroots level football:
"I think we've just got to encourage people, particularly boys, to feel comfortable talking about these issues. They're massively important issues and nobody should in any way feel ashamed or feel as though this is weakness. This is an issue that embraces so many different people at different stages of their lives.
"Maybe boys see this as a weakness, maybe it's something that they think is party indoctrinated into them that they should feel less comfortable about than girls. Certainly, I think we should be encouraging anybody who's got any sort of mental health issues to open up, share their feelings."
Sheffield and Hallamshire FA have even set up a new 'good mood' league specifically for people struggling with mental health problems.
Roger says it's all about making sure people are comfortable about taking about their feelings:
"I think mental health has been a barrier in the past. Football, through the high profile that is has, has an opportunity to play its part in encouraging people to understand that it's not weakness, it's not something you should be ashamed of. You should be simply be able to be in a postition to talk and open up to share you feelings much more easily.
"The one thing football can provide is that interaction with other people in a peer group and to allow people to share and explore their feelings. The fact that football and somebody like Wayne Rooney is championing this idea is excellent because there are a number of players that we're aware of who've suffered from mental health issues in the past."