Marcus Agnew
Good on New Zealand Rugby for launching their campaign aimed at helping to break down barriers surrounding public perceptions of mental health.
The rugby union is often a recipient of tall poppy syndrome critics, but they are certainly trying to make a positive difference here, and have even launched a
website - 'headfirst'.
Sport (especially rugby) does get a ridiculous amount of coverage but what good use of that leverage, to use sport as a vehicle to promote increased awareness of mental health and wellbeing.
It is normal, and 'okay', to have mental health challenges, just as it is with physical health.
Recent years have seen an increase in retired athletes talking about their battles with depression or anxiety, and sad stories of elite athlete suicides. Is it just a case of these stories getting greater exposure, or perhaps more likely related to the increased pressures associated with elite sport these days, and life in general.
It's great that rugby is making positive moves to increase awareness and it certainly highlights the need for enhanced monitoring of the mental health across all sports and society in general.
There is a raft of sports 'academies' around these days, which are naturally enticing for parents to enrol their children, with promises of enhanced sporting excellence, calling on parenting instincts and on the FOMO phenomenon.
Care needs to be taken though as to how we manage such academies, and there has even been a shift away from terms such as 'academy' and 'talented'. Such terms can suggest the athletes are something special, or gifted, and there is also the challenge of managing the emotions and self-belief of those that don't make the cut, and ensuring the late-developers continue in their sport.
Families and wider support networks can also unwittingly put added pressure on the young athletes by creating added expectation around the 'opportunity' and how great the youngster is going to be.
Too often though, reality will set in, and the young athlete will over time recognise they aren't going to make it, they aren't going to reach their lofty dreams and become that star they idolise on TV.
With that platform established, mental health issues can creep in. The athlete can bottle it up and put up a proud confident exterior, battling with the emotions of knowing they aren't going reach the heights predicted by well-meaning friends and family.
Therefore, we need to be very realistic, and manage expectations appropriately - as we so often here from top level sport - focus on the process, not the outcome.
Individual athletes are generally more prone to depression than team sport athletes - within a team there is naturally a dispersal of responsibility among the squad. In an individual sport, we have only ourselves to blame.
We will all face tough problems, that is normal, but it is how we respond. Resilience is about bouncing back from adversity, and growing . . . and seeking help is part of being strong and resilient.
Depression has also been linked to a lack of recovery time, and so we must be wary of burnout. Repeatedly going over the same form of practice - and some sports even playing two games per day - balance is better.
So, if we are going to create environments where talented athletes can reach their potential, then the environment must equally cater for the mental health as well as the physical health.
Creating positive group environments for training, away from the normal practice setting, can be fun and refreshing and especially important for individual athletes so they can form bonds with training partners from other sports.
Athletes can be less likely than the average to seek mental health assistance. Often, the very nature of sport requires that we toughen up, don't complain, and don't make excuses - 'just suck it up and move on'. Good qualities in the training environment but outside of that, not at all great for admitting a mental health issue, opening up, and seeking help!
Coaches, managers, family and friends need to be aware, proactive and promote help-seeking from qualified mental health experts; normalise it as we have with physical help.
Sport also needs to be kept in perspective, the intense pressure to win can create major stress. Entering an academy with dreams of becoming a great athlete can lead to major disappointment - that is the reality.
Enjoyment is the key, after all we are at our best when having fun. Self-improvement is fun, so again, rather than talking about winning, just focus on enjoying the moment - a stepwise journey of good behaviours and routines, from which good things will come.
As Dean Robinson, a Scottish professional golfer, aptly said: "Depression is an invisible illness. If you break your arm people are always asking if you're okay, but if you're depressed they don't realise something isn't right."
Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.