Through Country Football WA’s partnership with Tackle Your Feelings (TYF) and Healthway, a key strategy is to engage country football clubs in free mental health training across regional WA.

The TYF program is delivered by a program psychologist and aims to help participants gain the tools to understand, recognise and respond to signs of mental ill-health. The program is based on the education delivered to the AFL industry is led by high profile player and coach ambassadors.

Throughout the 2024 season, Country Football WA have delivered 3 roadshows to clubs and communities within the Pilbara, Midwest-Gascoyne and Goldfields regions.

The most recent roadshow kicked off in Kambalda on Tuesday 23 July. This session came about after local leader and player Joy Charlton reached out to Country Football WA to engage in the program earlier in the season. Despite a tough season on field for the club, the session was attended by almost 40 club and community members and the level of engagement from everyone in the room was a real highlight.

The program then headed to Kalgoorlie to engage female footballers from the Goldfields Football League. This session was more of an intimate discussion with players and League members in the room that left participants feeling more confident to have conversations with players, family members and friends about mental health and wellbeing.

The final stop for the Goldfields roadshow was in Newtown-Condingup where the club put on superb evening, which was led by Club Wellbeing Coordinator, Chris Oversby. This session had a great atmosphere and was attended by over 60 club members.

Post the session, Chris mentioned ‘the feedback from players, coaches and supporters has been very positive, with the biggest take away seeming to be the tools to recognise when themselves or people in their lives are not on their game and at risk, and the methods to deal with this’.

Throughout the 2024 season, Country Football WA have engaged over 300 participants in the 90-minute program across 9 regional communities.

Country Football WA are driven to see individuals, clubs, leagues and communities thrive through football and are looking forward to expanding the reach of program in 2025.

If your club or community is interested to engage in a TYF session, please Get in touch or visit https://www.tackleyourfeelings.org.au/ for more information.