The Mental Health Foundation will be leading a campaign to raise awareness about the effectiveness of exercise in preventing and treating mental health problems to mark Mental Health Action Week 2005.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that depression will be second only to heart disease as an international health burden by 2020, but the Mental Health Foundation claims that while the physical benefits of exercise are common knowledge, few know of the benefits to mental health.

The foundation is concerned with the growing number of people being treated for common mental health problems and the aim of this year’s Mental Health Action Week is to get people thinking about their mental health and asking them to consider it as important as their physical health.

“Mental Health Action Week will work to educate people about the fact that exercise, whether it be a walk in the park, dance class or game of badminton, can make you feel good. People need to start keeping themselves in good mental shape and exercise helps to both prevent and treat depression and anxiety,” said Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation.

The foundation will publish a report about the use of exercise in treating mild to moderate depression as part of Mental Health Action Week, which runs from 27 March to 2 April.