Football campaign urges mental health help

Football fans are being encouraged to seek early help if they are struggling with their mental health.

Hartlepool United has teamed up with the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) to launch the Poolies Matter initiative focusing on mental health.

Led by the trust, it offers practical help for those experiencing anxiety, loneliness or depression and features real stories from Pools supporters and community groups to encourage others to ask for help.

Ed Parkinson, of the trust and who came up with the idea, said he wanted people to know their mental health well-being "mattered".

The campaign is backed by Hartlepool United Supporters Trust, Heart Of Our Club 1908, The Corner Flag, The North West Corner, Her Game Too, Hartlepool United Disabled Association, and South East Poolies.

Hartlepool was the only local authority in the Tees Valley to record an increase in suicides from January to June 2025, rising from 4.7 to 5.9 per 100,000 deaths.

"We did a campaign at work called 'You Matter' how a lot of mental health patients say that they feel no-one cares about them and they don't matter," Parkinson said.

"We were looking how to make it more specific to particular areas and particular groups to try and encourage people to get early help and I thought the blue and white of the NHS fits with Pools and with being a Pools fan.

"We took it from there."

The trust put the idea to the club's charitable foundation United for the Community and changed the name to Poolies Matter.

"Football has a reach into the community that goes a bit further, that's why we wanted to work with them," Parkinson said.

"United for the community do loads of work with schools and youth groups so we really hope a massive chunk of the town's population end up knowing where this help is availble who didn't know about it before."

Hartlepool United's community manager Keith Nobbs said: "Sometimes the hardest thing is to talk, but there's lots of people there who can help and support and advise you in times of trouble and need."

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