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Case Study

Sport Aberdeen + Glasgow Caledonian University

Activities and resources that promote mental and physical health in children and young people.                               

Awards and Achievements

KTP Final Grade: B ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The project was awarded the grade of "Very Good" by the KTP Grading Panel for its achievement in meeting KTP's objectives.

Sport Aberdeen

Sport Aberdeen is a private limited company, and an award-winning registered charity committed to creating opportunities, inspiring people and changing lives through sport and physical activity. Established in 2010, Sport Aberdeen manages and delivers physical activity and sport services on behalf of Aberdeen City Council and several other partners.

What was the need?

The Challenge

This project will develop the ProActive Minds programme: an innovative suite of activities and resources that promote mental and physical health in children and young people. The project will embed sport and exercise psychology knowledge and skills within the company and position it to expand the ProActive Minds programme nationally.

What did we do?

The Solution

The aim of the project is to create a program package that uses physical activity as a vehicle to support the mental health of children and young people across Aberdeen City through the work of Active Schools. The program will be rolled out over the three levels of Active Schools; universal (available to all young people across the city), targeted (referral of small groups with shared outcomes) and specialised (bespoke programs for individuals identified as needing support).

Key objectives:

  • Integrate sport and exercise psychology theory into the current Active Schools program and processes to make it more effective at supporting young people’s mental health.
  • Train and educate staff on how to implement psychological theory into their work to be more effective at support young people’s mental health.
  • Create activities and resources that are evidence based and co-created with key stakeholders to support young peoples mental health.
  • Develop and implement a robust and evidence-based train the trainer course to equip Sport Aberdeen staff to train others on how to support young people through physical activity.
  • Provide 1:1 support (including referral system) to support young people experiencing mental health challenges.
  • Create a culture of change within Sport Aberdeen in relation to mental health.

 

This KTP project presents an innovative opportunity to gain insight into the multilevel and dynamic context of children and young people community sport and exercise projects to better understand the mechanisms underpinning their influence on participant mental health. As there are no commercially available programs like this, this project has the potential to create a package, first of its kind, to use sport and physical activity as a vehicle of support for children and young peoples’ mental health which could be licenced and rolled out to other Active Schools team across the country.

What changed?

The Impacts and Benefits

Impacts for the Company

The KTP project had a wide impact on the company by identifying gaps in the Active Schools program's mental health support, leading to enhanced services for young people in Aberdeen City. The project fostered collaboration with key partners to deliver targeted mental health support and developed a comprehensive mental health safeguarding procedure for the organization. Additionally, it created specialized provisions for mental health support, bespoke training for the workforce, and a package of programs designed for staff to deliver. These initiatives collectively strengthened the company's ability to support young people's mental health through sport and physical activity.

 

Impacts for the Academic Team

The KTP project significantly benefited the Academic Team by providing valuable placement and consultancy opportunities for DPsych students, enhancing their practical experience. The project also facilitated the dissemination of applied work at national and international conferences, showcasing the University’s contributions to the field. By representing the University within the UK-wide network groups, the project highlighted the role of sport and exercise psychology in community settings. The national recognition of the project by the British Psychological Society (BPS) further underscored its impact, with the BPS citing it in a letter to the UK Minister for Sport as a model of how sport and exercise psychologists can positively influence health and wellbeing.

 

Impacts for the KTP Associate

The KTP Associate benefits from: developing a wide range of experience in their field, being provided great autonomy while also being highly supported along the way. The Associate also is provided the opportunity to develop their project management and leadership skills within a hybrid workspace between and academic and industry setting. On a personal-professional level, the associate also benefits from having protected time and funding to develop their own professional skillset and experiences such as attending a wide variety of training and dissemination activities from presenting at national and international conferences to talks at network meetings within the profession. More on the personal side of the personal-professional development, the Associate can gain great confidence and experience through the freedom of navigating an innovative project while being supported along the way to do this.

The People

Meet the Team

Dr Ciara Reidy

KTP Associate

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Dr Bryan McCann

Knowledge Base Supervisor

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Kim McRobbie

Company Supervisor

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