'Imagine Your Goals' programme "saved my life"
The latest tournament was held in Netherton on World Mental Health Day
A Merseyside man has told us how a football mental health programme has literally saved his life.
'Imagine Your Goals' is a fitness programme set up by Everton in the Community to offer local people living with mental health issues the chance to talk about their problems and seek support in a familiar environment.
Participants can get football coaching sessions and education, volunteering and employment opportunities while competing in a local league and regional, national and European competitions.
Jake Mattocks has taken part in the programme for the last 11 years.
Jake said:
"Imagine In Goals has saved my life and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
"I joined when I was 15 when I started going through some mental health issues and I'm 26 now, so it's a long time.
"It's much more than football"
"It's not just about football, it's just being amongst people. The staff are amazing, you get some friendships and those friendships, you can talk to them whenever you want. It's much more than football.
"There's a mental health facility opened up with referrals to GPs, coffee mornings.
"It saved not just my life, I know it's saved a lot of people's lives."
The football tournament, held on World Mental Health Day at Goals Soccer Centre in Netherton, culminated in a trophy presentation with Everton ambassador and club legend Graham Stuart.
Johnnie Garside, Health and Wellbeing Manager at Everton in the Community, said:
"It's about bringing people together with shared experiences and the thing with mental health is that it can be quite isolating, it can be quite alienating, so bringing people together who've been through similar experiences to share experiences can be really liberating.
"Helping people understand that they're not alone, that there's other people out there and there's fantastic support available to enable people to have that optimism for the future and a better, positive outlook for the future."