Premiership Rugby and LooseHeadz Tackling It Together

Premiership Rugby and The LooseHeadz Foundation commit to working together to #TackleTheStigma.

The LooseHeadz Foundation (registered charity number #1193051) is today delighted to announce they will be working in partnership with Premiership Rugby as part of our commitment to help #TackleTheStigma that surrounds mental health in rugby.

Building on their existing work to break down the barriers surrounding mental health and promote better mental wellbeing across its communities, Premiership Rugby will be supporting LooseHeadz with their mission to place a mental health lead within every rugby club across England.

These mental health leads ‘LooseHeadz’s’ will be provided with access to a toolkit which contains resources such as the wellbeing check-in platform Govox, a CPD approved online training resource developed alongside Mental Health Foundation which can be accessed completely free of charge here, as well as a host of other resources designed to create mental health friendly rugby clubs. 

Staff at Premiership Rugby, and the 13 Premiership Rugby clubs will also gain access to LooseHeadz toolkit alongside a number of other initiatives throughout the year including webinars, training sessions and more.

LooseHeadz will also be working closely with Premiership Rugby throughout the season to continue to prevent, promote, educate and signpost around mental health, with particular focus on key events such as Mental Health Awareness Week throughout the season. 

Work will also continue on the exciting This Means More project which aims to highlight the importance of rugby on mental wellbeing, including some of the feel good stories that surround the game from professional level to grassroots rugby.

Wayne Morris, Director of Community and CSR said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with LooseHeadz to drive mental health awareness together. Our work with LooseHeadz will embed mental health support into our community programmes which often support some of the most vulnerable groups, breaking down barriers surrounding mental health and providing safe spaces for our participants to open up.

“Rugby is a very tight knit community and it’s important for us, as Premiership Rugby, to lead from the front and tackle the stigma around this issue. We want to encourage everyone in the game, the players, fans, staff, our community clubs and our sponsors to all support others and encourage open conversations about mental health.”

Dave Nicoll, Co-Founder of LooseHeadz said: “This is a hugely exciting project for LooseHeadz. Premiership Rugby has already shown a significant commitment to help tackle the stigma that surrounds mental health, and with their support we are even more confident of achieving our goal of placing a mental health lead into every grassroots rugby club.

“We know that the local rugby club is at the heart of many local communities, and so provides the ideal opportunity to help normalise the conversation that surrounds mental health. We believe that with the support of the professional game through Premiership Rugby, we can encourage even more clubs to join our Partnership Programme and make mental health as important as physical health.”

You can find out more about LooseHeadz, the available resources and sign up to the Partnership Programme here.