Take Control
SPHERE is a rehabilitation project aiming to aid people with psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder etc. using physical exercise. The programme looks to achieve this by improving their quality of life, health and wellbeing. The programme is a collective of 7 partners from around Europe, who all informed the SPHERE project through research and their own examples of best practice within their designated field.
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Mental illness represents a growing and significant burden to individuals, communities and the health system. The importance of physical activity for those living with a mental illness has led to recommendation that all people living with mental illness have access to exercise and dietary interventions as part of routine mental healthcare. However, recommendations and guidelines for the practical use of physical activity to support those living with mental health problems are limited and dated. As such, the SPHERE project
team have developed a set of SPHERE Guidelines (which include 19 recommendations) to help guide practitioners in the use of physical activity when supporting mental health rehabilitation.
Concept
It was important that the forefront of the project was always the guidelines and getting them across using information design to deliver those guidelines to the reader, however the client also made it very clear that while the guidelines were the main strategy, relaying them in a creative way which alludes to both mental health and physical activity through its visual language was very important. To do this I wanted to create a story, one which describes why the guidelines are useful and how they help so the professionals could really get involved with and make a difference through the use of these guidelines.
Take Control is a campaign which looks to use a metaphor which describes how someone suffering with a psychiatric disorder might be feeling, and how the guidelines can impact and make a difference to
their lives.
To make a campaign which would be used by a variety of different professionals from different fields, not only did it need to convey the information in a useful manor, but it also needed to be bold and noticeable in order to be appealing and instantly recognisable. The goal was to make it different and stand out, while also making sure it’s clear that mental health and physical activity are the main topics involved.
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Throughout my research one conversation really stood out to me. “It feels like 1,000,000 balls bouncing around in my head”, a description of a mental health disorder given by someone suffering. They described the idea that it feels overwhelming and all consuming, and that if they could have one thing, it would be for the balls to stop, to take control. The visual language and story told within the campaign is a constant reminder that following the guidelines and using physical activity can help to take control of mental health and lead to a more positive, active and healthy lifestyle.
