{"id":4654,"date":"2019-10-10T10:08:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T09:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2021-06-15T17:01:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T16:01:00","slug":"the-importance-of-physical-activity-and-health-education-to-support-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/the-importance-of-physical-activity-and-health-education-to-support-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of physical activity and health education to support mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On World Mental Health Day,<\/em><\/strong> Dr Kristy Howells, discusses the power of physical activity and how it can improve the mental health of children and adults. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Physical activity has the power to be life-changing; it has the potential to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children. Engaging in physical activity, including through sport, movement and physical education, can be a positive experience that can help increase confidence and self-esteem through regular participation, prevent mental health difficulties and improve the quality of life of individuals experiencing mental health issues.  More education and more dedicated curriculum time are needed to ensure that children and young people understand and meet the recommended guidelines for daily physical activity to support positive mental health and prevent suicide or suicidal ideation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence suggests that\nschool-based physical activity has an important role to play in reducing\nfeelings of hopelessness, suicide and self-harm. The new curriculum policy for\nHealth Education within Relationships\nand Sex Education<\/a> (RSE) focuses on the importance of physical health and\nfitness as a way of combating stress and supporting positive mental health. Physical\nactivity has the potential to reduce the sense of hopelessness and suicide\nideation in adolescents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being part of a sports team is\nassociated with lower depressive symptoms, lower perceived stress and better\nself-rated mental health in young people and research by has also found that\nphysical activity, in particular frequent vigorous activity, had protective measurement\nagainst feelings of hopeless and suicide risk in adolescents especially males. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Children’s\nMental Health week<\/a> I highlighted the importance of focusing on physical\nhealth and mental wellbeing.  RSE will\nbecome compulsory in both primary and secondary age phases from 2020.  This new curriculum suggests that \u2018teachers\nshould be clear that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the\nsame way as physical health\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphasis on the word \u2018normal\u2019\nis an interesting use of language. Teachers report to endure greater job\nrelated stress\nthan other professionals<\/a>.  How can\nour teachers be wellbeing role models, if they are so impacted by stress and\nlow levels of wellbeing themselves?  Are\nthey being as physically active as they can be or do they simply not have the time?\nTeacher comments within the government\u2019s own teaching\nblogs<\/a>, highlight the need to address teacher wellbeing. They propose\nswitching off servers to reduce the level of emails sent and to encourage staff\nto talk to each other. They also suggest eating cake at break as well as art\ntherapy and circuit training to support wellbeing and happiness. The emphasis\nis directed at staff coming together as a community, developing connectedness\nand reducing loneliness, although the suggestion of eating cake as a\nrecommendation for wellbeing is perhaps at odds with the new\ncurriculum<\/a>\u2019s focus on healthy eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim\nof health education is to enable children (and teachers) to understand the\nbenefits of physical activity and time spent outdoors as well as developing\nlong term physical and mental wellbeing habits. \nHealth education can also support children\u2019s understanding of the\nimportance of sleep, good nutrition and strategies for building resilience.  Being actively involved in life long\nparticipation in sport, physical activity and movement can enhance feelings of\nconnectedness, remove the feelings of loneliness and hopelessness and thus\nreduce feelings of suicidal ideation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Kristy Howells is Reader and Director of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On World Mental Health Day, Dr Kristy Howells, discusses the power of physical activity and how it can improve the mental health of children and adults. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151654,"featured_media":4673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3902,1357,342],"tags":[366,3054,514,2862,3058,2734,3049,3050,3057,346,2590,3053,3045],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-research","category-society","category-sport","tag-active","tag-art","tag-children","tag-curriculum","tag-nutrition","tag-physical-activity","tag-relationship-and-sex-education","tag-rse","tag-sleep","tag-sport","tag-teachers","tag-therapy","tag-world-mental-health-day"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Emma Grafton-Williams","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2019\/10\/Physical-acticity-and-health-education-to-support-mental-health.jpg","postExcerpt":"On World Mental Health Day, Dr Kristy Howells, discusses the power of physical activity and how it can improve the mental health of children and adults. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7709,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/7709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}