Australian Athletics believes that taking a holistic approach to wellbeing allows high-performance athletes to learn, thrive, and contribute to the community during their time in sport, and in life afterwards.
AA’s Wellbeing and Engagement team support and encourage high performance athletes to confidently reach their potential and lead a balanced life during and after their sporting careers.
Wellbeing and Engagement is being embedded within our high-performance pathway through a sport specific framework which has been co-created with the AIS. The framework details services and resources available to high-performance athletes that supports athletes to find the right balance between wellbeing, engagement in activities outside of training and competition, and the requirements of elite sport.
The framework will support AAs high-performance athletes in the areas of;
Community Engagement - Opportunities for athletes to engage with their local communities, grass roots sport and national charities.
Wellness/ Mental Health - Access to the best practice mental health information and education and individualised psychology services.
Career and education - Access to information, advice and face to face or online learning related to education, career mapping, professional development, and work experience opportunities.
Personal development - Face to face or online learning related to wellbeing and personal growth.
Conduct and professionalism - Advice on managing integrity issues, guidance and support to navigate ethical decision making within the high-performance environment, and provision of policies and procedures.
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement department includes a dedicated Mental Health Team whose objective is to support and strengthen athlete mental health through a clinical care model, providing athletes access to a nationwide Mental Health Referral Network.
The national network is comprised of Psychologists with specialist mental health experience who can provide evidence-based assessment and treatment services for athletes.
For all categorised athletes (podium/podium ready and potential/developing/emerging) the Mental Health Referral Network services are available at no cost to the athlete.
Contact:
P: 02 6214 1130
If you would like to learn more about our support services, please contact Australian Athletics' Athlete Wellbeing & Engagement Manager Melanie Purkiss [melanie.purkiss@athletics.org.au]
