🔻General practitioners in the Stroud area, located in Gloucestershire, England, are scheduled to, as part of a pilot program, prescribe match tickets for some patients with mild to moderate depression instead of prescribing antidepressant drugs.

🔹Under this plan, titled “Football on Prescription,” 11 treatment centers in the Stroud area will, starting from the new season, send eligible patients to watch matches of Forrest Green Rovers at the stadium.

🔹The plan was developed on the initiative of Simon Ower, a general practitioner and a Labour Party representative in the UK Parliament, in cooperation with Dale Vince, the owner of Forrest Green Rovers. He believes the program can reduce dependence on antidepressant medications and, as part of “Social Prescribing,” help improve mental health.

🔹Speaking to Pulse website, he said: “Football might not be suitable for everyone, but we should expand social prescribing options so that at the first point of contact for patients, the only solution is not just a prescription for medication.”

🔹Read more details on the website