Run Clubs as Mental Health Interventions: A Study of Psychological Well-being, Social Connectedness, and Community Running among Urban Youth in India

This study explored the use of community run clubs as a mental health intervention of the Indian urban youth basing on primary surveys data and a review of the international literature on mental health intervention, clinical psychology, and social behaviour. The results confirm that run clubs provide a potent, accessible and non-stigmatizing avenue to enhanced psychological well-being - one that integrates the neurochemical benefits of aerobic exercise with the social and identity benefits of community belonging. The research indicates that the key mechanism which transforms a personal intention to health into a lasting behaviour is social accountability. It is other people who make participants revisit, their expectations, their encouragement, their collective rhythm. It is consistency, rather than any one session, which yields long-term mental health benefits. The stigma bypass effect that has been identified in this research has significant implications to Indian mental health policy. In a time when the formal mental health system is already saturated and stigma remains a powerful force, community based clubs are providing an alternative infrastructure of mental health: one that is already in place in most major Indian cities, is already low cost to operate and requires no clinical expertise to join. Yet, to realise this potential, there needs to be action taken. Run clubs should be structured so as to be inclusive rather than competitive. Women need to be better equipped in terms of safety infrastructure. The awareness campaigns should target the youth who are struggling yet do not know that a run club can be of help. And the mental health fraternity needs to start to realise community running as not a trendy lifestyle activity, but as a valid and evidence-based community-based intervention programme. To sum up, the run club is not just a fitness club. To most of these urban Indian youth, the community they were seeking, the accountability they needed and the mental health assistance they did not realize they were getting.

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