State of Mind and the Rugby Football League have featured prominently in the latest report released last week by MIND
The death of Terry Newton, an England and GB Rugby League professional who took his own life in 2010, had an impact on the entire rugby league community. A group of people with medical expertise and a passion for rugby came together to found State of Mind (SoM), a campaign to improve the mental health, wellbeing and working life of rugby league players and communities. SoM has delivered free mental health player awareness presentations to help players identify how they can improve their mental wellbeing and encourage them to ask for help if they need it.
The success of SoM has been significantly aided by the support of the sports’ sole administrators in England, the Rugby Football League (RFL), who have made it compulsory for every club to have the SoM workshop delivered to their players.
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind who is attending tonight’s Super League game between Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants says:
“When people in the public eye speak out it inspires others to seek help which is why we’re thrilled to welcome Clarke Carlisle as an ambassador of Mind, especially at a time when sport and mental health is rising up the agenda. It’s shocking to think that some athletes feel driven to suffer in silence in case it affects their careers.
“We are delighted things are starting to happen in sport, to support people with and prevent people from developing mental health problems, but working in isolation is not the solution. We want to work with sports governing bodies and other organisations to find better ways of ensuring our sporting heroes, and their families, have the support they need.”
State of Mind presenters Danny, Jimmy and Will with Declan Kidney (former Ireland Rugby Union Head Coach) at Cork University where rugby league and union and GAA sports came together top formulate a plan to support student athletes in the future
Malcolm Rae State of Mind Programme Director was quoted in the report
The coming together of different sports would bring opportunities for sharing ideas and initiatives, and
joint creative working on similar issues – i.e. resilience building, and support to players at the end of their
careers or when experiencing injury or illness. Malcolm Rae, State of Mind
If you want to have a look at the report please click on the link below
www.mind.org.uk/media/1085139/Mental-Health-and-Elite-Sport.pdf
State of Mind hope Paul Farmer enjoyed his time at the game last night and the volunteers were around the Halliwell Jones stadium