Tigers tackle their feelings at event

LAST Wednesday, Torquay Football Club hosted a free Tackle Your Feelings workshop at Spring Creek Reserve.

Tackle Your Feelings is a program devised by the Australian Football League Players Association (AFLPA) that gives participants a better understanding of mental health and mental illness.

AFLPA psychologist Dave Williams delivered the program to the well-attended event at Spring Creek Reserve. He said the natural relationships footballing communities create make them a perfect platform to teach people about mental health.

“There’s an oval wherever you go, and there’s a community and a town attached to that oval.

“It’s tapping into the resources that are already there to be able to teach people to do with more skill what they already do instinctively, which is to wrap their arms around each other.”

The program was first used to aid AFL players and staff, but this year the AFLPA in collaboration with the Zurich Foundation has piloted delivering an adapted version of the program to various footballing communities.

They will officially launch the program next year, with it aiming to reach over 250,000 football participants across Australia by 2025.

Project Manager and Greater Western Sydney defensive coach Nick Walsh said the program makes it easier for participants to ask question about others mental well-being.

“The program essentially gives them the tools to understand, recognise and manage signs of mental health.”

Mr Walsh also said it helped create a more accepting open attitude to mental health.

“One of our key things is to shift the needle in terms of the stigma that is associated with mental health.”

As one of the 25 clubs to pilot the program, Torquay Football Club is helping to move the discourse on mental health forwards.

Torquay Football Club president Jenny Wood said that with about 1,200 on their membership database, it is crucial the club’s leaders have the right training to support those around them.

“Our coaches and our senior players are so critical to supporting those conversations, supporting each other and making sure that they are equipped for those conversations.”

“This is about giving people who can have those conversations the tools, the awareness, the knowledge and the skills to be able to have a conversation with others.”

The people who attended the workshop were then encouraged to complete three short online modules, which included stories form coaches and players in the industry.

Mr Williams described mental health as “the space between two people”.

He said it can be pictured like a box that is too heavy for one person to lift but can be carried comfortably between two people.

He said people who attend the program and complete the online modules will be able to help others with their mental wellbeing.

For more information on the program, visit tackleyourfeelings.com.