Mr Wright
Jaws
I feel for him. If he's got good quality professional help then he ought to be fine.
But it does raise an issue that's been gnawing at me since Nu did his knee. Do NRL clubs take mental health as seriously as they take physical health?
One in three young people (that is, between the age of 14 and 25) will experience mental health problems. My guess is the rate in NRL clubs is quite possibly higher.
They're also a group who are often away from home and are under a great deal of pressure to 'make it'. They have to manage serious injuries which threaten their career and separate them from their mates during rehab.
And many young people use alcohol and other drugs to self-medicate.
Most of that is pretty obvious but its made me wonder how Clubs approach the issue. I'm sure they address issues once they become serious (like Andrew's appears to have) but do they deal with these things pro-actively?
Basically, what's the culture like? Do the players (and staff) acknowledge that depression, anxiety and the like are real problems that require professional help?
And do they have structures in place to prevent and mitigate these illnesses? They spend a heap of time and money training the bodies of these athletes, in part to prevent injury. How much effort goes in to building psychological skills and support networks (both inside and outside the Club) to head off these problems before they arise and to improve psychological performance?
It might be that these things arent reported but somehow I doubt it. I would appreciate everyone else's thoughts.
Are you implying the NRL is incompetent? Shock Horror. I doubt they have any real structures in place as far as mental illnesses go, behind the world by 10 years again NRL. I reckon it would come down to the player making the decision to seek help outside of the clubs knowledge or in extreme cases the club sitting the player down and asking if they had a problem/s.
In reality the NRL should provide support staff to each team working on the mental side of things with the players, because it surely doesn't seem like the clubs can come up with such a revelation of an idea and put it into action.