Reaching out: help-seeking among professional male ice hockey athletes

Tackle Your Feelings: Experience of Help-Seeking for Mental Well-Being Concerns in Professional Rugby Union Players

“…An unexplored approach to facilitating help-seeking in elite sport may be to focus on the role of teammates as informal sources of support. Involving players in such interventions may help to normalise the experience of mental ill-health in sport, promote help-seeking referrals, and challenge perceived team cultural/social norms that may restrict help-seeking behaviours and disclosures whilst also worsening outcomes (Crawford et al, 2022). Players' genuine concern for teammates could be used to co-produce campaigns and interventions to improve overall mental health support in professional rugby environments.…”

“…Encouragement from others, previous positive experiences, a supportive environment, and positive attitudes of their coach were facilitators in the intention to seek support in young elite Olympic Australian athletes (Gulliver et al, 2012). A recent study of professional male ice-hockey players found if help-seeking was viewed to benefit the team performance, whilst serving an individual's needs, help-seeking was facilitated (Crawford et al, 2022). Informal sources of support such as family and partners may be valuable to elite rugby players (Marsters & Tiatia-Seath, 2019); however, actual help-seeking amongst elite rugby union player in relation to formal sources of support requires further research.…”

Psychological Safety for Mental Health in Elite Sport: A Theoretically Informed Model

“…It has been repeatedly shown that athletes in high performance contexts are fearful that speaking openly about a mental health problem will lead to negative consequences, including deselection or reduced perceptions of competence or 'mental toughness' [30][31][32][33]. We acknowledge that mental toughness (at least, as conceptualised by academics and practitioners) may well be critical to success in elite sport and is not necessarily in opposition to concepts congruent with good mental health [34,35].…”

“…However, it is undoubtedly clear that many individuals in elite sport perceive that to disclose their mental ill-health could signal weakness or reduced 'mental toughness' to others in positions of influence (e.g. coaches) [30][31][32][33]. This is impactful, because when individuals feel a need to hide their mental health problems, they may be less likely to receive adequate professional support.…”