Mental health help-seeking in professional rugby players

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In this paper we have taken a look at the self-reported help-seeking behaviour in a sample of professional RFL players, and explored some factors which can help explain differences between those who seek help for mental health issues and those who do not. Being able to explore actual help-seeking behaviour is exciting, as previous research haven't measured actual behaviour, but examined attitudes and intentions towards help-seeking. We know attitudes and intentions can be poor predictors of actual behaviour, so this is a very novel and important study. Our results suggest that interventions should focus on increasing mental health literacy (i.e., increase elite athletes' awareness of mental health issues, symptoms, when and where to seek help) and reducing stigma. Timely help-seeking is important when managing mental health issues, and can help reduce the burden of poor mental health.

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