Rachel Wilcock
Research Assistant (Sport and Mental Health)
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0) 1695 584405
Profile
Biography
Rachel is a Research Assistant in Sport and Mental Health and her research interests are based around evaluating how physical activity and/or education based programmes can improve health and mental health among adults. She gained her BA in Education and Sport and Physical Education in 2016 from Liverpool Hope University before joining Edge Hill University and obtaining her MSc in Sport, Physical Activity and Mental Health in 2017. Following her time as a student at the University, Rachel joined the Sport and Physical Activity department as a Research Assistant in December 2017. Outside of this, Rachel is also a qualified Coach in Running Fitness and Mental Health Ambassador for England Athletics, and sits on the Steering Group for the England Athletics Mental Health Ambassador programme.
Projects:
- Tackling the Blues
- Offload
- Ahead of the Game
Research Interests
Rachel’s previous research has explored how taking part in physical activity through running and parkrun can impact the health and wellbeing of females. Her current role at Edge Hill University focuses on exploring the rugby themed education-based male mental health programme ‘Offload’, and its impacts to the mental fitness of men aged 16 and older in three locations in the North West. She works in partnership with Rugby League Cares, State of Mind Sport, and three Rugby League club’s charitable Foundations (Warrington Wolves, Widnes Vikings and Salford Red Devils) to conduct a mixed-methods approach to the evaluation of ‘Offload’ using Realist Evaluation as a framework. This evaluation aims to assist Rugby League Cares in the growth and expansion of the ‘Offload’ project to the other Super League Rugby Clubs.