"It's Recovery United for Me": Promises and Pitfalls of Football as Part of Mental Health Recovery

This paper builds on the concept of mental health recovery to critically examine three football projects in the United Kingdom and their effects on the recovery process. Drawing on qualitative research on the lived experiences of mental health clients and service providers across the three projects, we explore the role of football in relation to three components of recovery: engagement, stigma, and social isolation. The findings indicate how the projects facilitated increased client engagement, peer supports, and the transformation of self-stigma. The perception of football as an alternative setting away from the clinical environment was an important factor in this regard. Yet, the results also reveal major limitations, including the narrow, individualistic conceptualization of both recovery and stigma within the projects, the reliance on a biomedical model of mental illness, and the potentially adverse consequences of using football in mental health interventions. Cet article s' appuie sur le concept de retablissement en sante mentale pour examiner de facon critique trois projets de soccer au Royaume Uni et leurs effets sur le processus de retablissement. En se basant sur une recherche qualitative des experiences vecues de clients et fournisseurs de soins en sante mentale pour les trois projets, nous explorons le role du soccer par rapport aux trois composantes du retablissement : engagement, stigma, et isolement social. Les resultats indiquent comment les. projets ont facilite un engagement accru des clients, plus de soutien social, et la transformation de l'auto-stigmatisation. La perception du soccer comme contexte alternatif a l'environnement clinique etait un facteur important a cet egard. Pourtant, les resultats revelent aussi des limites majeures, incluant la conceptualisation individualiste et etroite a la fois du retablissement et du stigma a l'interieur des projets, la dependance vis-a-vis du modele biomedical de maladie mentale, et les consequences potentiellement adverses d'utiliser le soccer dans des interventions de sante mentale.