One participant who has benefitted from Huddersfield Town Foundation’s adult wellbeing programmes, Heads Up and Wellbeing Football, is Mihai Luchenciuc.

Mihai relocated to England in his early teens from Romania to live with his older sister, leaving behind his parents and other family members. He arrived in Dewsbury as a non-English speaking teenager, who then faced isolation and bullying.

Due to the drastic change in environment and stressors, Mihai experienced symptoms of low mood, and later experienced his first episode of psychosis.

After initial treatment, he was discharged into the care of the NHS Psychosis Team in September 2021.

In a desperate attempt to engage Mihai in a positive activity where he would feel safe and included, his Care Coordinator brought him to Huddersfield Town Foundation’s weekly Wellbeing Football and Heads Up sessions. Due to the medication prescribed for his mental health, Mihai had experienced weight gain, so it was hoped that attending Wellbeing Football would have holistic benefits for him.

Gregory Russell (NHS Psychosis Team) supported Mihai during his recovery...

“My job is to work with Mihai to help him achieve his goals, and in so doing, attempt to coordinate and provide him with care. In our time working together, Mihai identified goals as starting to make friends, feeling like he fitted in in the local area, to lose weight and to get back to education. Both Mihai and I identified that the football group and the social group (Heads Up) has been a vital intervention for Mihai. It is one of the things that has helped him stay in remission.

"Football is a huge stress deterrent for Mihai, the group has also made him feel like he belongs in the local area, given him something to attend each week and allowed us to work on his confidence in many ways. Firstly, I used to take him every week, now he gets the bus and is confident in doing so. Overall, he is much more independent.

“He has also made some great friends there, perhaps his first true friends in the area for a long time. The group has also allowed him to lose weight which has massively increased his self-esteem, alongside other things we have been working on such as better diet. Being so involved in football has also expanded his interests, now following Town results not just Man United! He has learnt to socialise. He went back to college in September. All of this is so important in our understanding of how people achieve good mental health.”

Mihai no longer requires support from the NHS Psychosis team and was invited to celebrate the progress he has made with Huddersfield Town Foundation, as a Community Hero earlier this year, experiencing a full match day in hospitality.