Improving welfare support for professional rugby league players The mental health and wellbeing of professional athletes in general and, in particular, sports which emphasize ‘mental toughness’ and are considered to reinforce masculine stereotypes, is an area of concern. Player welfare is a recent development in supporting elite athletes during their professional careers and beyond. Professional rugby players have traditionally had limited welfare support, with the majority of support directed towards improving on-field performance. Professional rugby players are in a vulnerable position with short careers, uncertain contracts and a reluctance to seek help. Prevalence rates of anxiety and depression in male elite athletes in team sports is as high as 45% and rugby has been described as having a ‘toxic culture’ of denial of mental health problems. Sport player welfare Dr Kiara Lewis, Dr Susanna Kola-Palmer and Dr Alison Rodriguez carried out research between
research.hud.ac.uk
Dr Kiara Lewis
2015 and 2016, working closely with the Player Welfare Director of Rugby Football League (RFL). In the first study of its kind, the team used an anonymous online survey of professional rugby players to assess their knowledge of and attitudes to RFL player welfare. This study has shown that players who know more about the available mental health support and have more positive attitudes towards that support, report fewer mental health symptoms. This suggests that by increasing positive attitudes towards mental health support and mental health
