CoSEP has received a request to assist in the development of “Mental Health in Sport Guidelines” aimed at the organisations charged with governing non-elite sport. The request comes from Stewart Vella of Wollongong University, ESSA and SMA.

The project is funded by the ARC, and has representatives from the AFL, Football Australia, Pride in Sport, Disability Sport Australia, Special Olympics, Cricket Australia, and the AIS. Our representative would be joining the committee on behalf of CoSEP and the APS.

Stuart has provided some additional information about the “Mental Health in Sport Guideline Development Committee:

The purpose of the guideline development committee is to take a leadership role in:
(i) making strategic decisions about the guidelines such as to whom should they apply, what is their purpose, etc;
(ii) writing the guidelines; 
(iii) considering stakeholder feedback and any potential changes to the guidelines; and, 
(iv) developing a dissemination strategy for the guidelines. As such, the committee has a very important and influential role in the entire process of guideline development.
 

The guidelines will focus on non-elite sports (i.e., community sports). The goal is to produce clearly articulated, actionable guidelines that community sports clubs can use to guide the processes and practices that they can put in place (such as having a dedicated Mental Health First Aid officer within the club).

Stuart is looking for a robust and diverse group of committee members that will contribute meaningfully to the process of writing the guidelines. He expects the total commitment to be in the order of 4 days. For example, there will be an initial ‘scoping’ meeting to set some strategy around the guidelines which might take about half a day. Subsequently, there would be around a two-day commitment to the process of writing the guidelines. A further day and a half could be consumed with analysing stakeholder feedback, making any adjustments to the guidelines as necessary, and setting some dissemination strategy. Stuart adds that this is not set in stone, but it should give you an idea about the time commitment.