Mental health is a widespread issue in many spaces with sporting clubs often witnessing many cases while being a great place to foster and support the condition.

This is why the Wahgunyah Football Netball Club held a Wellbeing and Mental Health session on Tuesday, July 1, led by Shez Spiteri from SALT – Sport & Life Training to give players, members and officials alike an understanding of anxiety and depression and provided them with positive mental health habits for life.

This is the club’s third session in three years with SALT and the resilience, connection and the genuine care the WFNC group shows for one another is something special.

The session educated players, supporters and officials alike in how to have real conversations and aim to reduce the stigma that remains around mental health issues.

All participants were also encouraged to ask questions to their friends and to be open and honest about how they are coping.

Those who reveal they are struggling are connected to people with capacity to ensure they receive follow up.

The tough conversations were discussed as the club want to grow stronger together.

Just last year the Lions created the Club WellBeing Team to continue keeping consistent habits which leads to a stronger culture across the club.

The members of the team are Taleaka Dickins, Max Harvey, Kane Palmer, Polly Macrae, Chris Collins and Alex Lavis.

"The SALT session created an environment where people felt comfortable and engaged with opening up in front of teammates,” a Wahgunyah Football Netball Club spokesperson said.

“It highlighted the importance and relevance as our club being a safe and supportive space.

“We feel this has strengthened our connection with teammates, to our club and our community."

In 2013-14, SALT founder Dave Burt worked with seven clubs over an 18-month period, all of whom had lost people they loved to suicide. At every club, Dave heard the same message, "we never saw it coming".

Around that time, Latrobe University did a study that established that typically people are three times more connected in the sporting club than they are at school or work.

This is how SALT began officially in 2015 as a not for profit, preventative, education company working in local sporting clubs to create connected, caring communities that would take their strengths from sport and apply them to the things in life that matter more than sport such as relationships, work, school and the challenges of a pressured life.

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