Bido Lito! Magazine | Issue 114 | June 2021

you want to be. It’s the whole gamut of human emotions.
Football is life.”
On occasions when football shares conversations
with mental health – of having the power to transform
and improve our lives – it’s often met with surprise from
some who see the sport as little
more than light entertainment.
In this reality, football’s
parameters are contained within
a set of goals and 90 minutes of
playing time; it’s a game of zerosum
absolutes, with two teams
competing until the spectacle
ends, seeing players and fans
return home to more ordinary
lives.
Like any one of the other
mental health teams at the
tournament that day, Liverpool
Football Therapy doesn’t begin
and end with the blow of a
whistle. Its work isn’t confined
to a pitch for 90 minutes. Its
players don’t suddenly return to a different life when
the spectacle is over. It’s a project that, since beginning
formally in 2019, has continued to provide a platform for
adults affected by mental ill health, with the squad acting
as an immediate peer support network on and off the
pitch.
Colin Dolan, the programme’s founder and chief
executive of Mental Health FA, began to write the first
chapters of Liverpool Football Therapy following his own
continued experiences with mental ill health, including
bipolar disorder. “I’ve suffered from mental ill health since
my early 20s and have been depressed for a number of
years, on and off. I have had lots of periods with suicidal
thoughts and, sadly, I’ve succumbed to those thoughts on
a few occasions by trying to take my life five times.”
Colin’s adolescence in Glasgow’s East End strikes at
the heart of the stigma surrounding mental health: the
perceived shame that prohibits the ability to seek help,
“Where you’re
supportive of each
other on the pitch,
you’re supportive
off the pitch.”
particularly in more masculine environments. “It was very
much a macho environment where showing weakness
was just not an option – you were bullied and abused. I
certainly didn’t want to tell people how bad I was. I put
[my first suicide attempt] down to just a silly mistake
and no one in my family ever
spoke about it. I was very much
embarrassed and always hoped
that no one would find out.”
Finally diagnosed with bipolar
in 1997, Colin had spent years
unable to acknowledge and find
recourse for his condition. “I had
gone all those years without
seeing doctors and psychiatrists.
I thought I knew better than
them, like most of us do at
times.”
Following a move to
Liverpool in 1995 that was
decided by the flip of a coin,
Colin continued to experience
mental ill health right up to 2012
when he was voluntarily hospitalised for his own welfare.
“When I came out of hospital, I went into a friend’s
house in Toxteth while I waited for a house with my wife,
Michelle. For about six months I was in my bedroom not
wanting to come out, just getting lost.” It was here when
Michelle signposted Colin to Imagine Your Goals, a mental
health football programme run in partnership between
Everton in The Community (EITC) and Mersey Care.
“These are all people who are diagnosed and under
mental health services. It can be a long drawn out
process to get on board, but I went through it. Not only
did EITC change my life, they saved my life and helped
me become the person that I’d always hoped to be.” Colin
saw in football-led therapy a way to combine the benefits
of exercise with the peer support each session would
naturally provide. “Football has always been my escape
from everything in life. But the Everton [programme]
just seemed that bit more special compared to any
football club or organisation I’d ever been to, because
I was surrounded by so many people who were also
on their journeys through mental ill health.” The course
of Liverpool Football Therapy was set. “That’s what I
decided to do – dedicate my life to helping other people,
and that’s never going to change.”
Those who have had to navigate the complex
world of mental health services will be familiar with the
numerous barriers and bureaucratic hurdles required to
access appropriate treatment. Owing to lengthy referral
processes – together with the stigma around help – Colin
knew there existed a number of adults who were slipping
through the net. “[Getting referred] can take a long, long
time, through no fault of Mersey Care or EITC – sadly
neither have enough funding to push the process through
quicker. So, I saw there were people who wouldn’t go
to the doctors, or people who would go but wouldn’t go
and see a psychiatrist. Some might see a psychiatrist
but won’t take medication – they won’t go on the books
of Mersey Care because they don’t want to be seen as a
regular, so we have all these barriers.”
When Colin began the sessions for Liverpool Football
Therapy in 2019, they were founded on the principle that
early intervention can buy time. As such, he maintains
a no-referral joining process to ensure the programme
remains accessible to all, diagnosed or undiagnosed.
“Early intervention saves lives. Someone with stress or
a mild form of depression may never experience suicidal
thoughts – but they could, and if we can nip it in the
bud then there’s at least a better chance that it’ll never
happen at all.”
For many of the players, the programme brings
purpose, responsibility and focus back into their lives.
Luke McNulty joined Liverpool Football Therapy in
the Summer of 2019 and lives with ADHD. “Liverpool
Football Therapy has been the best thing on the planet
for me. At the time I joined, I was going through a really
dark patch and wanted to commit suicide every day of
my life. I had no real motivation to get out of bed, so this
has been an outlet for me.” Enjoying the opportunity to
socialise with peers living with mental ill health, Luke
James’ Place
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