PROMOTING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT IN OCEANIA

The personal, social and economic costs of mental disorders have increased substantially in recent years and are alarmingly high. There is a general consensus among professional bodies, government agencies and the general public alike that physical activity and sport have a role to play in improving population-level mental health and well-being. Such an understanding has been operationalised through physical activity guidelines and a plethora of sport-related position statements on mental health promotion. However, such approaches have some meaningful limitations. Existing physical activity guidelines focus solely on the quantitative aspects of physical activity such as its frequency, intensity and duration. Contextual factors such as the type of physical activity that is undertaken, programme delivery, the social and physical environment and the domain of life in which it occurs have largely been overlooked despite a clear influence on mental health outcomes. Sports Medicine Australia and the Australian Psychological Society recently produced a set of recommendations to help guide practitioners in their prescription of physical activity to optimise mental health and well-being. Likewise, efforts to promote mental health in organised recreational sports are increasing but have been ad hoc in nature. To provide a unifying and national approach to the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental health problems in recreational sports in Australia, a set of mental health guidelines was developed. Those guidelines addressed key areas of implementation for community sports organisations as they seek to promote mental health within a national sports system. We call for greater focus and research to understand the impact of each of these initiatives, and to advocate for greater policy and practice change.