The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has used the first anniversary of a program which encourages sports to pay a greater attention to athlete wellbeing and mental health, to declare the program is working well.
Deputy Director at the AIS, Matti Clements (pictured) said sports were working together to place greater priority on the importance of athlete wellbeing and mental health.
“The AIS has funded and embedded Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement managers in 15 sports over the past six months, with plans to further expand that network to 20 across Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports by the end of 2019,” Ms Clements said.
“The national expansion of these services had enhanced direct support for athletes, but it has also led to greater collaboration across Australia’s high performance sporting system.”
She said the AIS’s goal was to support Australian athletes to be the most successful they could be in sport and life.
“To do that, it has been critical to build a national approach to athlete wellbeing,” Ms Clements said.
“The AIS has worked in partnership with sports over the past year to elevate the importance of athlete wellbeing in the high performance environment.
“We want high performance environments where coaches are having meaningful conversations with their athletes about their wellbeing as well as training.”
She said the AIS team of Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement managers was providing support in areas of mental health, career and education, community engagement, conduct and professionalism and personal development.
“As this network continues to grow, we look forward to launching some new initiatives this year with resourcing for mental health and activities where athletes can better interact with their local communities,” Ms Clements said.
