Reaching Young People in Urban and Rural Communities with Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Within a Youth Sports Development Program: Integrating In-Person and Remote Modes of Service Delivery.

Embedding mental health and wellbeing programs within youth sports development programs can help provide more young people with mental health support. However, delivering such programs in multiple locations across metropolitan, regional, and rural areas requires novel solutions to overcome geographic and logistical barriers. We examined the delivery of an integrated system delivered within an Australian junior rugby league program. The program included online assessment and feedback about youth mental health, as well as connection with evidence-informed resources and referral sources via parent telephone and email support. There were four methods of delivering player workshops during training sessions: (a) In-person Delivery Only, (b) In-person + Remote Real-time (video-conferenced), (c) In-person + Remote Prerecorded (video-recorded), and (d) Remote Delivery Only (video-conferenced and/or video-recorded). In-person delivered player workshops were facilitated by local rugby league personnel. Remote delivered workshops were facilitated by psychologists from the mental health research team. Participants were 671 boys (12-15 years; M age = 13.35; SD = 0.35) in 21 metropolitan, regional and rural locations. Regardless of delivery condition, players with elevated anxiety, depression and behavioural problems reported significant declines in symptoms from pre- to post-program, and those within healthy ranges did not change from pre- to post-program. Player workshop enjoyment ratings were higher in the In-person + Remote Real-time condition and the Remote Delivery Only condition than the In-person Delivery Only condition. However, non-completion of the post-program assessment across all conditions was higher than in prior studies and a comparison group of players who did not complete the program was not included. Mental health benefits may be observed across in-person and remote modes of delivering mental health workshops within youth sports programs. However, the involvement of mental health personnel, whether in-person or remotely, and mixed delivery modes, may be important for young people's retention and satisfaction.

Kick-starting youth wellbeing and access to mental health care: Efficacy of an integrated model of care within a junior sports development program.

One productive avenue for building adolescents' personal strengths and reducing mental health problems is integrating assessment and intervention into organised sports programs. We investigated the efficacy of the RISE program, a rugby league development program for 12- to 15-year-old boys, which integrated a mental health and wellbeing system called Life-Fit-Learning. The Life-Fit System is designed to measure youth's strengths and mental health symptoms and sends mental health feedback to parents, provides group-based workshops, connects youth and parents to online psychoeducation resources, and provides individual telephone follow-up and referral with parents of youth at high-risk for mental health problems. In this study, mental health and wellbeing outcomes were compared in participants who did (RISE, N = 94) and did not (Comparison, N = 82) receive the RISE/Life-Fit-Learning program. RISE players reported their self-satisfaction, grit, gratitude, prosocial behaviour, anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems using the Life-Fit System pre- and post-program. Comparison participants completed measures twice, 6-months apart. Self-satisfaction did not change in RISE participants but declined among comparison participants. In both groups, 26% of players scored in the high-risk range on at least one mental health measure. On mental health measures, high-risk RISE players' depression and behavioural problems improved from pre-to post-program relative to no change among Comparison players. Among participants who were not high-risk, RISE players' anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems did not change whereas Comparison players' behavioural problems increased significantly. Results underscore the value of integrating strengths-based interventions and targeting youth mental health problems within the context of junior sports development programs.

Tackling Mental Health in Youth Sporting Programs: A Pilot Study of a Holistic Program.

Linking mental health services to organised sport offers an avenue to identify and improve mental health among adolescents. In this study, we investigated the efficacy, acceptability and feasibility of an integrated mental health system embedded within a junior sports development program. A three-step integrated mental health program for 12- to 15-year-old rugby league players (N = 74) was delivered in urban (n = 44) and rural (n = 33) areas. Specifically, this system (a) assessed participant mental health on primary outcome measures of anxiety, depression, and anger/conduct problems (and secondary outcome measures of personal attributes and relationships), (b) provided feedback to participants, parents and program coordinators, and (c) connected participants and parents to a multi-component intervention including online resources, a group-based workshop program (4 × 30-min sessions), and tailored individual-level follow-up and referral to further care for participants at high risk of mental health problems. From pre- to post-program, boys' anxiety symptoms declined significantly (with only a trend-level reduction in depression), and there were significant improvements in grit (for urban boys only), efficacy to manage negative emotions, and prosocial behaviour. In addition, when boys reported symptoms associated with high risk for mental health problems, providing parents with feedback enhanced boys' access to care and was associated with significant declines in anxiety symptoms. The program was generally acceptable and feasible, with very high retention in the youth sports development program. Overall, early findings support further deployment and evaluation of integrated mental health systems embedded within sporting contexts to address mental health problems among adolescent boys.