About HeadFirst

The HeadFirst programme encourages our rugby communities to stop and consider their mental fitness, just as they would with their physical fitness. There are workshops available that are free for community rugby clubs, and its public facing website HeadFirst.co.nz shares online learning tools and a range of educational resources.

While focusing on your mental health is still fairly new to a lot of our communities, HeadFirst has focused on educating our people while they are already in the rugby environment and workshops typically run either in place of, or directly after, an evening training.

They cover: • Mental wellbeing: what it is and how to look after it. • Stress: how to identify it early and useful skills to cope. • How to notice when someone might be going through a tough time and needing support with their mental wellbeing. • How to check in with mates and whānau when you’re worried about them.