News

Additional mental health support for coaches, athletes and parents

England Athletics has formed a new working relationship with Believe Perform to help support the mental health of the athletics and running community.

The agreement, featuring all four Home Country Athletics Federations [HCAFs] and British Athletics, will see new online resources designed by Believe Perform’s sports psychology and mental health experts being provided for athletes, coaches and parents.

England Athletics will offer 1,600 Believe Perform resource licences for coaches and athletes on the senior, junior and youth talent programmes as well as mental health champions in clubs and RunTogether groups across the country. These licences will be rolled out in due course.

Training courses, articles and infographics on sports psychology, mental health and wellbeing will be available to help inform, educate, and support members and member clubs during this current period of uncertainty and anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Believe Perform image
Click here to download high resolution coach infographic (PNG image file 850kB)
Click here to download high resolution athlete infographic (PNG image file 950kB)

 

We are very excited to be working with Believe Perform to help support athletes, coaches, clubs and our wider athletics family in the areas of mental health and sports psychology. Believe Perform have extensive expertise in this area and provide the highest quality of support and resources, through their platform. England Athletics are committed to supporting our members ongoing mental health and feel through our work with Believe Perform we can make a significant difference.
Martin Rush, Head of Coaching and Athlete Development at England Athletics

 

We believe with the right education, knowledge and support, not only can we help people to improve their performance within their own chosen arena, but we can also start supporting them to build positive mental health habits. With the current conditions and uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 we could not be more proud to be working together with England Athletics and all the home nations in collaboration with British Athletics as one unit to increase the proactivity and awareness around positive mental wellbeing and to work towards reducing the stigma attached to mental health. We are looking forward to strengthening our working relationship and helping more athletes, parents and coaches to stay mentally healthy in and out of sport.
Adam Morris, Managing Director at Believe Perform

England Athletics also strives to assist participants and help make the sport more open and accessible to those experiencing mental health problems in other ways.

Through its #RunAndTalk programme, the not-for-profit membership and development body for grassroots athletics and running clubs supports more than 1,000 Mental Health Champions across affiliated clubs and RunTogether groups in England.

#RunAndTalk aims to:

  • get people talking about mental health, sharing their experiences and removing stigma
  • provide support and guidance to raise awareness of mental health problems
  • support people experiencing mental health problems to be physically active through running, whether that is to support them in starting, returning to or continuing to run

For more information visit www.englandathletics.org/mentalhealth.