Training to Refer workshops provide important tools for athlete facing staff
The programme, developed and facilitated by HPSNZ Wellbeing and Engagement Lead Dr Toni Minniti, Head of Performance Psychology Dr John Sullivan and Wellbeing Programme Advisor Bruna Lima, is a foundation initiative of the Athlete Mental Health and Performance blueprint.
The first series of workshops were designed to ensure HPSNZ athlete facing staff and coaches know what to look for and what to do to support mental health and wellbeing.
Using a combination of in person and online workshops in Auckland, Cambridge and Karapiro, athlete facing staff and coaches were provided with training and tools to help them promote and work with athletes in environments that support health and performance.
HPSNZ Coach Consultant, Angie Dougal, says the T2R programme is very important for coaches to increase their knowledge in the areas of health and performance.
“Coaches hold a lot of wellbeing weight in the coach-athlete relationship and accordingly face a high level of pressure and stress. They need to know how to deal with it for themselves and for their athletes.
“The T2R workshops give coaches the skills they need to be able to have crucial conversations with their athletes,” says Angie.
Coaches who attended the workshops represented a very broad group and highlighted the differences between coaching environments – those who see athletes often, who deal with teams or individual athletes, are funded or non-funded or have an embedded psychologist or no internal resource.
“For many of our aspirational sports, a coach holds a lot of different roles in the athlete’s campaign so it is important they know how to elevate health and performance concerns, where to go, what to look for.”
HPSNZ Strength and Conditioning coach, Neil Yeates, says the workshops reinforced that wellbeing, health and performance are the responsibility of everyone working with athletes, not just psychologists.
“In my view, wellbeing is not a side note, it is a performance condition.
“We all spend a lot of time with athletes and are an important part of their support structure. The workshops provided practical tools to help us support our athletes and in particular I found the Wellbeing Mental Health Continuum model useful to understand how classifications are defined by our performance psychology team.
“I often see my athletes up to three times a week so it is important I understand the signs of any deviation from baseline behaviours and know how to act accordingly,” says Neil.
The focus of T2R in 2026 is to build on the inaugural initiatives from year one. “Our goal is to roll the programme out to NSOs and to continue to add to our growing base of resources and tools,” says Toni.
“We are also in the second year of the Wellbeing Scan data collection forums this year, will and we are conducting online webinars in March based on the develop a Wellbeing in Selection process Wellbeing Guidance for Selections resource guide for the HPSNZ website developed in collaboration with the NZOC and our communities of practice.”
There are a range of resources already available for staff and coaches:
Wellbeing Programme Resources Hub – HPSNZ
Health and Performance Resources to Support Referrals – HPSNZ