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I felt conflicted as I read about a scheme launched this week by a British industrialist and a Labour politician to help improve people’s mental health. 

The initiative, Football on Prescription, was started by Dale Vince, who describes himself as a “green industrialist”, and the MP Simon Opher, who has been a GP for 30 years and has voiced concerns about the overprescribing of antidepressants for people with mild or moderate depression.

Vince owns football club Forest Green Rovers and, as the name of the scheme suggests, he is getting GPs in and around Stroud to distribute free tickets to its matches for patients struggling with their mental health in the form of “cards” that will “include a link to sign up for walking football or five-a-side sessions locally”.

He called Football on Prescription the “first scheme of its kind in the UK and maybe the world”. It caught my eye for two reasons; my love of football (although I confess I’m not a Forest Green Rovers supporter) and my interest in social prescribing.

In the 15 years since I came into the pharmacy press, I’ve been fascinated about what community pharmacies can do to help tackle the social determinants of poor health – things like income, education and housing which can diminish someone’s personal sense of worth.

Pharmacy is unique in connecting with and signposting people who are hard to reach, such as the unemployed, drug addicts and the homeless. I was slightly disappointed Football on Prescription made no mention of the role pharmacies could play as it attempts to help people who are suffering from mental health problems feel socially engaged. 

I was a little disheartened to read on Forest Green Rovers’ website that “from this season, doctors and nurses can prescribe football if the patient and doctor feel it could help mental illness or feelings of isolation”.

Vince said the scheme is “aimed at everyone struggling with their mental health, but especially men, who are statistically the hardest to reach”, rightly pointing out that suicide is the leading cause of death in men under 50.

But did Vince or Opher approach any pharmacies to take part in their initiative? Do they know pharmacists can prescribe?

Now, I want to be clear about this – I’m not knocking Football on Prescription. I just have a nagging feeling it might be missing something huge.

Neil Trainis is the editor of Independent Community Pharmacist magazine.