The collaborative partnership, entitled Supporting Mental Health through the Entourage in High-Performance Sport” (MENTiS), aims to develop evidence-based mental health educational resources and tools to facilitate mental health support for both athletes and entourage members.
Specifically, the tools will help athletes and entourage members to develop their mental health literacy, mental health first aid competencies and mental health self-care competencies.
Prof Chris Harwood, Dr Florence Kinnafick, Dr Anthony Papathomas and Simon Wombwell, will work as part of a consortium of 28 experts in high performance sport and mental health, from four national sport governing bodies, one high-performance centre, and three athlete-friendly universities.
Prof Harwood explained: “This project is unique because it focuses on the mental health and well-being of the team around the athlete including family and partners as well as coaching staff.
“As the UK partner, we are working with national sport organisations and centres from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.
“We hope to generate a range of cross-cultural resources that Loughborough Sport can utilise for its Performance Programme student athletes and, importantly, their support systems.”
The first results of MENTiS will be available in October 2023.
For more information about the project, please visit the MENTiS website, Twitter account or Instagram account.