A MENTAL health and wellbeing hub co-developed by Edge Hill University researchers has won an Educate North Award.
World-leading Edge Hill research underpins the vital services being offered at The People’s Place in Liverpool, run in partnership with Everton in the Community (EitC), Everton Football Club’s charitable arm.
The £2.5million hub, the first of its kind to be attached to a Premier League football club, adopts a “one-stop shop” approach to supporting people in Liverpool City Region.
Andy Smith, Professor of Sport, Physical Activity and Mental Health, said: “Current approaches to health and wellbeing services are unsustainable, expensive and often do not provide communities with timely, effective and accessible support to tackle stubborn health inequalities, especially around mental health. The People’s Place offers something different.”
Dr Helen O’Keeffe, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education, added: “With Everton in the Community we developed a new approach to enable residents who don’t typically engage with mainstream health and care services to lead healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives.
“Our ‘right care, right person’ approach makes it easier for residents to find the right professional, in their community, on their terms.”
Edge Hill researchers worked with residents, schools, NHS trusts, charities and public health specialists to create much-needed community-based health programmes.
Clinical and non-clinical services are now on offer at the hub, including community groups, GPs, mental health nurses and counsellors, dementia and diabetes clinics and health screening, in collaboration with regional NHS health providers and the third sector.
Tackling the Blues, a multi-award-winning sport and arts-based mental health and wellbeing programme for children and young people, run in partnership by Edge Hill, EitC and Tate Liverpool, is one of the programmes being delivered from the hub.
The development of The People’s Place in supporting people in areas including bereavement, psychological crisis, Parkinson’s disease and food poverty is recognised with the Educate North Award win in the Community Engagement – University Sector category.
