Our award-winning health initiative, Change Talks, which continues to make a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of young people, school staff and families across Lancashire, celebrates its 8th anniversary this week.
What began as one small idea whilst working on the gastroenterology ward has since grown into an initiative that has reached hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, most of them children and young people.
Change Talks began in 2017 when founder Sam Tyrer, inspired by his experiences supporting patients who had attempted to take their own lives, secured backing to host the first Change Talks event. From there, the initiative travelled the country, raising awareness of mental health from Carlisle to London.
In 2018, Change Talks became part of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust as a six-week school programme. The programme quickly earnt recognition including Highly Commended at the Young Citizen Award, the Mental Health Hero Award (LEP), and strong local media coverage.
Between 2019 and 2021 the programme continued to gain momentum, and it expanded in partnership with third-sector organisations, delivering keynote speeches nationwide and launching the Mental Health Family Hour webinar series during the COVID-19 pandemic, this webinar series went on to win the Prime Ministers Points of Light Award.
Growth has continued for Change Talks, from meetings with key parliamentary figures to continued recognition with awards, such as the NHS Parliamentary Award for Excellence in Healthcare in the North West. Change Talks has also trained more than 150 facilitators across the country to deliver vital mental health content.
Throughout 2025 alone, Change Talks has provided over 450 hours of targeted workshops in schools across Lancashire and South Cumbria, with transformative results.
One school to benefit from the programme is Albany Academy in Chorley, where Change Talks has worked closely with staff to address emerging mental health concerns.
The school’s safeguarding officer explains:
“We’ve been working with the Change Talks team and throughout the last academic year have built a strong and collaborative relationship. They have delivered bespoke groupwork on self-harm, body image, eating disorders, risk taking behaviours and unkind behaviours, tailored exactly to the needs of our students. Their flexible, evidence-based approach has had a real impact for our students.”
The team’s responsiveness has been critical in meeting emerging issues in real time. Change Talks supports primary, secondary and further education students. For one student, the impact has been life changing after participating in a four week self-harm intervention.
She shared:
“The intervention was really good and made me look at self-harm differently. I started to see that it didn’t help me, so it wasn’t worth doing. I haven’t self-harmed in 11 months now, and that started with this course. I’m really proud of that.”
Alongside workshops in schools, throughout 2025 Change Talks has been focussed on building an interactive PSHE platform to be delivered in schools throughout the UK. The platform will feature more than 300+ PSHE sessions, each session designed to be interactive and encourage classroom discussion on increasingly important topics.
The service has also trained 398 professionals, including educators, in neurodiversity awareness, and reached over 500 parents and carers through practical workshops designed to offer insight, support and guidance.
Since its launch Change Talks has reached more than 150,000 young people aged 4 to 21 across Lancashire and South Cumbria. All sessions are co-created by individuals with lived experience and healthcare professionals and cover essential topics such as online safety, anxiety, depression and stress.
Sam Tyrer, adds:
“At its core, Change Talks is about listening, responding, and empowering. Whether it’s a young person navigating identify, a teacher trying to better support neurodiverse students, or a parent seeking advice, our goal is to provide timely, compassionate, and practical help.”
The platform covers the full PSHE curriculum and includes timely, topical content to reflect the real-world challenges students face. Sessions are brought to life through a combination of video content and interactive activities.
With mental health support becoming increasingly vital in schools, Change Talks stands as a trusted and transformative force, evolving in response to community feedback, ensuring its approach remains relevant and impactful.
