00:00Around 30,000 adults have been referred to mental health services across Kent and Medway
00:05between April 2025 and January 2026.
00:10And this number is only increasing year on year.
00:13And so one charity is calling for more open conversations around mental fitness.
00:19When we think of physical health, the word, you know, the first words that might pop to our head
00:24is like running, going to the gym, walking, you know, doing all those positive activities.
00:29When we talk about mental health, people often go to anxiety, depression, all negative things.
00:36But these are just two of our hells, yet we talk about one so positively and one negatively.
00:41So if we're going to talk about it negatively because of the stigma around mental health
00:45or people even saying I don't have mental health, I would rather not use the word and just say,
00:50well, let's talk about our mental fitness.
00:52Head in the Game is centred around prevention rather than crisis support.
00:56Using sport to help build resilience and better manage stress and anxiety over time.
01:01And the aim is to ease pressure on frontline services like the NHS.
01:06And here in Hen Bay, table tennis is a sport of choice.
01:11Providing a space for exercise, social connection, time outdoors or for simply taking time to pause and rest.
01:18Yeah, nobody's forcing anyone to say anything.
01:21But I think that the environment and the feeling that it brings just enables people to relax and feel that
01:27they can open up.
01:28And then they've got a route.
01:30If they don't want to open up in here, they've met people that they can contact outside.
01:37In the last couple of years, I've had my own sort of challenges with things.
01:40So I found it's been really beneficial to me to come along, like sort of break the cycle of sort
01:46of loneliness,
01:47get out of my head a little bit and sort of be a bit more sociable.
01:49So I've really found that beneficial as well.
01:52Now, these sessions, they happen all across the county, ranging from badminton to tennis, even going on walks.
01:57It's not just table tennis.
01:59And that's what's fun about it.
02:01It ranges from low impact to higher impact sports so everyone can feel included and no one is left out.
02:08And having a go now, I can see why this is such a fun thing to do.
02:12But I must say, I am absolutely terrible at table tennis and definitely need some more practice.
02:17And with tens of thousands reaching out for help across Kent and Medway,
02:22Head in the Game say talking openly about mental fitness is a vital first step in reducing these numbers.
02:29Nayla Mohamed for KMTV in Herne Bay.
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