On Thursday 29 October Sports Medicine Australia held a live panel discussion on mental health in sport hosted by Sport & Exercise Physician Dr Adam Castricum.
The panel included world renowned Sports Medicine professionals with AFL Chief Psychiatrist Dr Ranjit Menon, Australian Institute of Sport Mental Health Manager Matthew Butterworth, American Physical Therapist Dr Karen Litzy, Psychical Activity and Mental Health Senior Lecturer, Deakin University Dr Megan Teychenne and Sport and Exercise Psychologist Dr Michael Noetel.
A feature of the expert panel was their ability to cover such a broad range of perspectives on mental health in sport, combining their multi-disciplinary skills and experience to share valuable insights into many different areas.
These areas included attitudes and stigma around mental health in sports communities, positive and negative relationships with exercise, how communities can support their athletes when mental health struggles arise, as well as providing advice and resources to those who know someone struggling with mental health or may be struggling themselves.
To add to providing valuable insight to the topics addressed above, the panel also fielded 22 questions from the live audience, offering advice and options for those who are working in the field or have experienced mental health issues.
The panel discussion significantly emphasized that mental health is just as important as physical health and should be treated as such.
It was an insightful discussion that shared valuable understanding into the correlation between sports and mental health, and the idea that the two are more connected than we may think.