Critical incidents’ put mental health in spotlight

The GAA dealt with what it deemed were 26 “critical incidents” relating to mental health last year that clubs themselves felt unable to respond to across issues such as death by suicide, problems with addiction and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS).

The Association yesterday announced a partnership with the Samaritans aimed at making 24-hour, 365-day emotional support structures available to every community in Ireland.

GAA president Liam O’Neill, who launched the initiative, believes the GAA has been “fragmented” for too long in trying to bring togetherdifferent groups to work as onecohesive unit in dealing with mental health problems of members.

“We are unique in the world in that we have hurling, football, camogie, ladies football, handball and rounders, and we are for the first time trying to bring those groups together.

“We want to work with support from the HSE and the National Office for Suicide Prevention to direct our work across a variety of programmes and initiatives in the areas of youth development, social inclusion, alcohol education and emotional wellness.”

O’Neill stressed it’s also crucial the Association recognises that care for adults is as important as its work with young people.

Waterford hurler Wayne Hutchinson became the latest in a series of high-profile GAA players to articulate his struggle with depression, posting a piece on his personal blog that painfully detailed his ongoing battle.

And Colin Regan, the former Leitrim footballer who is now the GAA Community and Health Manager, believes the Association is leading the way in breaking down the stigma around mental health.

“I often think: ‘When is there going to be some significant or high-profile player in another code speaking out?’ Because it’s not just that it’s affecting GAA players.

“Wayne name-checked Conor Cusack saying that when Conor spoke publicly about his experiences with depression, it rang true for him and he realised ‘I’m not alone, I’m not the only one going through this’. Conor, when he spoke out, talked about the likes of Cavan’s Alan O’Mara. We had Seamus O’Donnell, the former Limerick goalkeeper, speaking eloquently on his experiences with depression. One conversation leads to another.”

Regan believes the GAA reflects Irish society and the problems that permeate every community.

“I played 20 years with my club and 12 years with my county and two of the lads I would have played with have gone in for treatment around alcohol addiction. It’s not because they played GAA, it’s because alcohol is an issue here in Ireland.”

Regan also revealed that cyber-bullying is a concern that clubs are continually raising.

“In our healthy club projects, we have 18 clubs going through this two-year programme at the moment. They carried out questionnaires of all their members last year. It was a big sample, nearly 1,500 responses. The same themes kept coming up: It was physical activities for non-playing members, dietary and nutritional information for younger members, and then the one that surprised us was anti-bullying, which came up time and again.”