S1 E10: Sink or swim: sports, mental health & overcoming trauma

Australia is a country that lives for sport; in the 2021 lockdown, millions of people were glued to the Olympics in Tokyo and football grand finals. But what about the mental health of athletes when they’re off the field? Renowned sports psychiatrist Dr Ranjit Menon joins It’s A Mind Field! to discuss the mental health of high-performance athletes.

On December 14 2012, the world watched in horror as a deadly school shooting unfolded at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in the United States. It was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in US History. Darren Wagner has extensive experience working with mass trauma after supporting his community of Sandy Hook through a school shooting and joins It’s a Mind Field! to discuss post-traumatic growth.

Guests:

Dr Ranjit Menon is a consultant psychiatrist specialising in mood and anxiety disorders. He has an Advanced Certificate in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry and is also a leading sports psychiatrist with a Certificate of Additional Training in Sports Psychiatry awarded by ISSP. He is the current Chief Psychiatrist of the AFL and the Director of Mentalogue Clinic, which specialises in the care of athletes and other patients with mood and anxiety disorders. He is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University. He is also the Vice President of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry. Dr Menon has published several peer reviewed publications. He is an external specialist for the AIS, Rugby Australia, Tennis Australia, Cricket Australia and was the on-call psychiatrist for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Join Patrick, Bree and Jane in ‘club mind’ where they respond to Dr Ranjit Menon’s interview and share their thoughts on sports and mental health.

Darren Wagner is a peer support manager, lived experience educator, researcher, and mental health comedian. Darren never avoids the ‘big topics’ and shares his experiences of mental health challenges over 30 years and how he has used his sense of humour as a coping mechanism to live with his symptoms and grow from his experiences.

This podcast includes discussion around topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult. We also encourage you to care for your safety and well-being. You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or access the Suicide Callback Service on www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au or 1300 659 467