A record demand from sporting staff for mental health and wellbeing support has led to an expansion of the Australian Institute of Sport’s (AIS) specialist services.
Acting Chief Executive Officer at the AIS, Matti Clements (pictured) said the AIS Mental Health Referral Network (MHRN) had received 444 referrals in 2021, an increase of 68 per cent on the previous year’s record 264 referrals.
“The MHRN was established in 2018 and consists of more than 60 expert psychologists and mental health clinicians spread across every State and Territory,” Ms Clements said.
“They all understand the pressures and complexity of life in a high-performance sport setting,” she said.
Ms Clements said while the MHRN had been primarily focused on helping past and present athletes, coaches and high-performance staff across Australia’s Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports, it was now broadening its support.
“We are now supporting other staff members, such as office staff, at AIS-funded National Sporting Organisations,” she said.
“Importantly, this means that about 600 more staff in Australian sport will have access to free, confidential and potentially life-changing support services.”
Acting Chief Executive Officer of Sport Australia, Rob Dalton said the various sports had told him how valuable the MHRN was.
“We felt it was also important to expand that support to staff who might not directly be working with high-performance athletes every day, but are just as important in the administration and success of our sporting bodies,” Mr Dalton said.
Ms Clements encouraged more people in sport to reach out for support if, and when, they needed it.
“The vast majority of people reaching out for support are current athletes and there’s a wide variety of reasons, such as relationships, transition in and out of sport, training, anxiety, sleep, nutrition and just general wellbeing,” she said.
“Our message is ‘if it’s worrying you, it’s important to us, so talking to someone can make a positive difference’.
“Even if you consider it a small problem, act early and don’t let it become bigger,” Ms Clements said.
