Mental health workshops for Olympic athletes in UK

Ever y Olympic and Paralympic athlete supported by UK Sport will receive mental health education in the run-up to Tokyo 2020 as part of a programme devised by the English Institute of Sport and psychologists from Changing Minds UK. The scheme was announced by the elite funding agency yesterday to coincide with the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs from 13-19 May.

More than 20 workshops have already been delivered, reaching over 300 athletes, and the plan is that all 1,200 athletes on “world-class programmes” funded by UK Sport will get the training before next year’s Games.

UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger said: “High-performance sport is a demanding world which can place unique demands upon people.

“It’s essential we all do as much as we can to support athletes, coaches and support staff, helping to create an environment that promotes and facilitates positive mental health.”

Last year, following a spate of negative headlines related to athlete welfare, UK Sports et up a panel of clinical psychologists and sports psychiatrists to advise governing bodies on mental health policy and step in with treatment, if necessary.

The new education programme is being overseen by UK Sport’s head of mental health Dr James Bell.

“The importance of mental health is now much more widely recognised in elite sport, yet much of the conversation about it still tends to focus on mental health as an issue or a problem,” he said. “These new measures are designed to encourage sports and athletes to talk more openly about the subject.”

Last month, Edge Hill University, in partnership with mental health consultancy DO CIA Sport, surveyed over 1,200 adults involved in the sports sector. More than half of the sample said they had experienced mental illness at some point, with one in four saying they were currently struggling with their mental health.