In December 2019, the APS was proud to announce its official partnership with the AFL Players’ Association, AFL Coaches Association and Zurich Insurance for the delivery of the Tackle Your Feelings program. The APS put the call out to members to become involved and received close to 200 responses. Several months later, the official rollout of the program is underway and is off to a strong start.
About the program
Tackle Your Feelings is a national mental health training program for local footy clubs and coaches. Harnessing the national power of Aussie Rules football, the program is designed to build an awareness of mental health within community coaches and introduce them to the tools needed to understand, recognise and manage the signs of emotional and behavioural distress.
The core aim of the program is to roll out specialised face-to-face and online mental health training to coaches and committee members at community footy clubs around the country, both in metropolitan and regional/rural areas.
About the curriculum
The curriculum for the program was developed by APS members Dave Williams and Matt McGregor who are psychologists with the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA).
Program ambassadors
The ambassadors for the program were recruited from the AFL and are passionate about raising awareness for mental health. They have contributed to the program by sharing their own story about mental health, featured in videos that make up the program curriculum, facilitated sessions alongside psychologists, and support the program on social and traditional media.
The content delivered within the Tackle Your Feelings program is based on the mental health program delivered to elite-level AFL players and coaches. Coaches begin with an awareness module completed via CoachAFL, followed by a face-to-face education session with a qualified psychologist, and then finish their training with further online learning.
Matt McGregor, Dave Williams and Guy Little delivered the training to more than 250 coaches representing 20 community clubs across five states in 2019. The ongoing evaluation of the program reported that 91 per cent of coaches who completed the program were likely to use some of the information they learned in their coaching.
“Lean on your support network. Have those conversations that you may not want to have to start. But those conversations will ease the burden on yourself and the people around you.”
Neville Jetta (Melbourne player)
“I’m really passionate about this space so I can’t wait to evolve my own skills and skillset to help other people around me.”
Kara Antonio (Fremantle AFLW Captain)
“There is a lot of pressure. You’re looking at the scoreboard every weekend and you get judged on whether you go that team to win that game. You do carry that burden of when you lose.”
Leon Cameron (GWS Giants Coach), Coach Ambassador
“Having psychologists deliver the training is a key point of difference for our program, but it’s also vital to our success. Athletes at the elite level have great resources available to support their mental health and through this program we want to build connections between players and psychologists at the community level too. Central to our strategy is recruiting local psychologists to deliver the program, so once they’ve delivered the session they continue to be a resource for that community to tap into.”
Nick Walsh, Tackle Your Feelings Program Manager, and former Melbourne Demons listed-player and GWS Giants assistant coach
Creating a network of APS psychologists
In 2020, the aim is to deliver the program to more than 1500 coaches from 200 community clubs across Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. To meet that aim, at the end of last year, the APS put the call out to APS psychologists who met a range of criteria. These included having experience working in mental health, and a passion for an understanding of community sport, in particular, AFL.
Applications were reviewed and selected in January and February by the Tackle Your Feelings program administrators, and the training with APS psychologists began at the end of February 2020.
The training
Psychologists complete a Tackle Your Feelings training module (Four Quarters of Mental Health for Psychologists) via the APS Institute, which aims to give an overview of the program. They then attend a face-to-face training session to learn how the program should be presented. Once the training has been completed, psychologists are eligible to deliver the program within the community, and also receive CPD points upon training completion.
The program beyond 2020
The Tackle Your Feelings team has plans to expand the program further in 2021 and beyond. There will be further opportunities for APS members to be part of this initiative. The APS will update members on the program as the year progresses.
