‘Mental health tsunami’ caused by lack of sport, Scottish Parliament warned

The Covid pandemic has caused a 'mental health tsunami' fuelled by a lack of sports facilities, a Scottish Parliament committee has warned.

The health and sport committee has called for the urgent early provision of a long-term national strategy to increase the physical and mental health of the nation as they continue to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on sports clubs and other local recreational facilities.

The body warned the lack of physical exercise had left many people struggling mentally as sports facilities remain shut due to the latest lockdown.

Many sports facilities such as Edinburgh's Murrayfield Ice rink, have been closed for almost a year.

The committee, which last month heard evidence from grassroots sports organisations and their users, has written to Mairi Gougeon, minister for public health and sport. The letter said mental health should be supported through healthier living, and for this to be available as lockdown and other restrictions end.

The committee said many local clubs are seeing a drop in their membership and have expressed fears that this will not be a short-term loss.

Committee convener Lewis Macdonald said: “The scale of work required to reinstate sport and physical and mental wellbeing as we come out of the pandemic is clearly huge and presents major challenges.”

The committee also highlighted the particular impact of the pandemic on women’s sport.

Mr Macdonald said: “The ingrained perception that women’s sport is less worthy than men’s has also gained traction during the pandemic. This perception, more a reality, was exemplified in the way the Scottish Women’s Football League had to shut down during lockdown last year, while most of their male counterparts were able to continue.

"The committee asks the Scottish Government what specific actions it is taking to address these concerns.”

The letter said that many children were dropping out of sports they previously participated in, due to Covid restrictions.

It added: “A number of reasons have been cited, including training now being less fun/interesting [or] more complicated due to having to learn and follow Covid processes [and] their children no longer being involved.

“Across the spectrum of sport there is real concern volunteers – ‘the backbone of sport’ are being lost. Providing incentives to entice coaches and volunteers was suggested to the committee as one way to help address these concerns and hopefully mitigate impacts by increasing numbers.”

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