Imagine with me a setting of your favourite sports event.
The atmosphere is charged, everyone expectant, some holding their breath, crossing their fingers, a nail biting moment……. Then in walks your star athlete, basking in their moment of a lifetime achievement for the Olympics, world championship or an international event.
Hang on a minute though, how often do we sit back and remember these athletes are human beings with life issues?
Relationships on the rocks, financial challenges, negative family dynamics, or even sports performance challenges.
The Kenyan perspective is even more dire. Athletes going for international assignments while facing numerous personal life challenges, pretty much like every other Kenyan, is very common.
The issues include family conflicts, unpaid rent, unpaid loans, school fees, marital conflicts and great financial expectations from family and friends.
So how do these great athletes navigate the very high expectations in sports performance and the day-to-day hurdles of life?
For a long time, this particular aspect of athletes was not recognised. Within the African context, the situation has been worse given the derogative terms used to refer to mental issues.
The good news is that mental health is now a recognised issue in the lives of these athletes.
Sports psychiatrist
Engaging in sports is considered one way of dealing with mental issues due to the benefits derived from its practice. However, the challenge comes when the actively engaged sportsperson faces the same issues which ordinarily sports would have managed.
No one ever doubts the inability of an athlete to compete owing to a muscle pull or physical injury. The fact that mental health is not as visible does not mean it is not there.
Towards the preparation and participation in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, part of the technical support team was the introduction of a sports psychiatrist.
This opened up an area previously neglected in addressing athletes’ mental issues. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and its direct impact on the mental wellness of the athletes, the psychiatrist had almost a continuous engagement with athletes and the entourage too.
This prompted the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) to get into a working arrangement with Chiromo Group of Hospitals through a Memorandum of Understanding.
The partnership provides the sports fraternity, through NOC-K, mental wellness specialists with vast experience and international practice.
The partnership’s primary objective is to break the stereotypes associated with mental wellness issues and allow sportspeople the freedom to speak out so that they can get help.
This entails going through programmes geared towards the detection, treatment, management and prevention of mental health issues.
An athlete’s mental health needs are as important as their physical health needs. While we cheer on our athletes let us also care for their mental wellness. BY DAILY NATION
