Launched at an inspiring breakfast event held at the MCG last month, the 2023 season of the Tackle Your Feelings program has had an exciting start for its fifth year running.
Tackling mental health in the community
Tackle Your Feelings is a free mental health training program delivered by local psychologists to community AFL coaches, committee members and other club support staff. The content delivered within the Tackle Your Feelings program is based on the mental health program delivered to elite-level AFL players and coaches. The 90-minute workshop aims to help participants gain the tools to understand, recognise and respond to signs of mental
ill-health in their players.
Backed by AFL player and coach ambassadors Nathan Buckley, Bec Goddard, Leon Cameron and Simon Goodwin, this grassroots-level mental health program for local footy clubs increases a participant’s knowledge of mental health and wellbeing by up to 30 per cent, according to recent research conducted by Monash University.
A controlled research study into Tackle Your Feelings completed in 2021 with 25 community clubs across Victoria found the program significantly increased a participant’s confidence to support and refer someone who they identified as struggling with their mental health. The study also found a 22 per cent increase in participants’ knowledge of resources available to support mental health.
Pre-existing research endorsed community sport as an effective vehicle for mental health support, and this latest study demonstrates the specific effect that can be achieved. Many people are more likely to seek out informal sources of support for mental health issues, so empowering community sporting clubs to be able to deliver wellbeing support like this can be helpful.
Creating a network of APS psychologists
The APS is proud of its network of psychologists based around the country who can be deployed to community clubs in their region to deliver the Tackle Your Feelings education. The program, which also includes online learning, launched in 2019 and has since been delivered to more than 7200 participants from more than 850 community football clubs across every state and territory in Australia.
In January 2023, the APS put the call out to members 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 2023.
Program ambassadors
The ambassadors for the program were recruited from the AFL and are passionate about raising awareness for mental health. They bring star power and lived experience to the program by sharing their personal stories about mental health, featured in videos that make up the program curriculum, facilitated sessions alongside psychologists, and support for the program on social and traditional media.
Nathan Buckley
“It’s an awesome program. It’s so succinct and gives you really practical strategies…It’s a great conversation starter.”
Bec Goddard
“Coaches are so influential in the lives of their players, and everyone with a football club for that matter, and with this comes a responsibility to ensure they play their role to create an environment where people feel safe, supported and comfortable to ask for help if they need it. Not every community coach is going to be confident in this area, so being able to access a free program to help them develop is gold.”
Dylan Buckley
“I’ve been fortunate to visit several community clubs with Tackle Your Feelings over the past three years and I’ve seen how effective the program is in starting conversations that will hopefully lead to change within the club. Particularly in regional areas where the community may have experienced the loss of someone due to mental health or challenges related to climate, the program has a way of surfacing things that otherwise might have been left unsaid.”
In his role as an ambassador, Leon Cameron, who coached the GWS Giants to the 2019 AFL grand final, has attended several workshops at community football clubs to encourage coaches to invest in upskilling themselves in mental health.
“The role of a coach has evolved significantly over time, just like society’s awareness and understanding of mental health. It’s not just about the Xs and Os anymore, the coach must build strong personal connections with players and in doing so they are optimally placed to have conversations about mental health if they notice a shift,” he said.
Dr Zena Burgess, APS Chief Executive Officer
“Football is the beating heart of many towns across Australia and gives people the chance to be part of a community and get support when needed. That’s why we are so proud of our partnership with Tackle Your Feelings, Australia. The work APS psychologists do combining community-based sport with psychological training to upskill local footy clubs and coaches makes a real difference and we can’t wait to help even more people in 2023.”
Finds and figures
Key findings
- Coaches see that they have an important role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their players but don’t always feel confident they have the skills to have conversations.
- TYF improves coaches’ understanding of mental health and wellbeing.
- TYF increases coaches’ confidence to have conversations with their players about mental health and wellbeing.
- Coaches who have completed the TYF program provide an environment that improves the willingness of players to discuss mental health and wellbeing and seek help.
- When both coaches and players complete the TYF program, there are additional benefits than if just coaches had completed the program.
Key stats
- People undertaking the TYF program increase their confidence to support
and refer by 14%.
- Participants reported an increase of 6% in the network of people they would reach out to for help for someone (this represents an extra person per participant based on a list of 10 options).
- 22% increase in their knowledge of resources available to support mental health.
- 30% increase in their self-rated knowledge of mental health and wellbeing issues.
- Participants decrease their desire to maintain any social distance (stigma)
from people with a mental health issue, from 15 to 5%.
(Based on median data, compared to control)