Tackling The Blues

Tackling the Blues (TtB) is an award-winning sport and arts-based education programme. It supports children and young people aged 6-16 who are experiencing, or are at risk of developing, mental illness. TtB is delivered in partnership between the Faculty of Education and the Department of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill University (EHU), Everton in the Community (EitC) and Tate Liverpool.

The programme is currently funded by the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England with support from the Premier League Charitable Fund.

A team of student mentors from Edge Hill University have shared their personal experiences of training to become mental health champions for award-winning programme Tackling the Blues.

The mentors have completed a major programme of training to boost their mental health literacy and enhance their employability skills since joining Tackling the Blues. The programme is a sport and arts-based education programme developed in partnership between Edge Hill University, Everton in the Community and Tate Liverpool.

To date, Tackling the Blues has supported over 400 Edge Hill students to complete Chasing the Stigma’s Ambassador of Hope training. This training focusses on how to talk about mental health and illness, how to effectively find help and signpost using the Hub of Hope and what to do in a mental health emergency.

Additional training sessions have seen mentors become certified Youth Mental Health First Aid Champions, as well as complete social and emotional courses in Psychological First Aid: Supporting Children and Young People, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) early Trauma online learning and Zero Suicide Alliance.

Alongside his training to become a primary school teacher at Edge Hill, student Michael Quinn is also helping to educate children and young people across the North West to talk about their mental health.

Michael, 26, is a Support Mentor for Tackling the Blues, Edge Hill’s mental health literacy programme for schools delivered in partnership with Everton in the Community and Tate Liverpool. As part of this role, Michael wants to provide the next generation with an opportunity to learn about their mental health literacy.

Michael, from Liverpool, said:

“I don’t really have any memory of learning about mental health when I was at school, I suppose the conversation was never meaningful enough for me to take note of.

“Tackling the Blues is a fantastic initiative because it offers an early intervention that can help young people to develop the skills to help keep their mind healthy which is important because in my experience, if you have a healthy mind then everything else follows on from that.”

“We aim to have a thread of creativity running through all the lessons we deliver. Art and creativity are great for learning and they’re also an important vessel for exploring emotions and feelings, and mental health feeds into this.”

“We also want to stress to the children the benefits of working as part of a team. Personally, I find something profound in the possibility of collective effort and collaboration and I think that’s important when you’re talking about mental health.”

“I don’t think it can be overstated how important early intervention and education around mental health is and the influence it has on the person you become. Over the past 12 months, pupils have missed out on socialising, playing and growing together and instead, their entire world has been on a computer screen.

“In a time when there is so much change and uncertainty, we hope that Tackling the Blues offers an outlet for children to open up, express themselves and positively interact with one another.”