Dons fans offered mental health app to help stress

● Move part of club campaign to assist supporters during crisis

Aberdeen FC are offering 10,000 fans access to a mental health app to help cope with the stresses brought about by coronavirus.

The Dons have teamed up with their health and wellbeing partner Health Shield to grant 10,000 licences to season ticket holders and subscribers to the club membership scheme AberDNA.

Thrive is an app designed by clinical specialists which helps to prevent and manage stress, anxiety and other related conditions.

It has been approved by the NHS and Health Shield has assisted several organisations such as frontline health workers gain access to it.

Rob Wicks, commercial director at Aberdeen, felt it was an important step the club had to take to reach to its supporters.

Mr Wicks said: “We launched our campaign early on during the pandemic and I’ve been out myself doing food deliveries. You see firsthand some of the challenges that people are facing. Whether it’s getting used to working in a different way during lockdown, or new pressure if someone has lost their job or lost a loved one, there’s all manner of different things Covid-19 is throwing at people.

“When we first got into the pandemic, nobody really knew the impact it would have. Nobody knew the scale it would take, in the number of fatalities or businesses that this would disrupt.

“If we can play a small part in assisting folk through something like this then all the better.”

The Dons launched their #StillStandingFree campaign at the start of lockdown and in partnership with the AFC Community Trust, have embarked on an outreach programme that has reached thousands of homes across the region.

Mr Wicks added: “We’ve been partnered with Health Shield for close to 18 months now. They made it known to us they could provide this mental health app and we have seen first hand through the work the community trust is doing, through the city and shire, just what Covid-19 is doing.

“There’s data pointing to one in four people coming out of Covid-19 with a mental health-related issue. It just seemed like the timing was spot on; they’re a respected partner of ours who we’ve done some work with already.

“It’s an NHS-approved app and it struck me as an opportunity for some close collaboration, that we could deliver to our season-ticket holders and AberDNA members.”

For more information visit info.healthshield.co.uk/free-access-to-thriveafc

Photograph by Chris Sumner HELP AT HAND: AFC’s Rob Wicks.