Fostering the Mental Health of Athletes, Coaches, and Staff

Charles A. Maher, PsyD, CMPC, FAASP is a licensed psychologist, sport and performance psychologist with the Cleveland Guardians Baseball Organization, and Professor Emeritus of Applied Psychology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. For thirty-four years, Dr Maher has provided mental performance and mental health services to athletes, coaches, support staffs, and executives in Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Women’s National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, collegiate sport organizations, as well as in tennis, boxing, and horseracing.

"Dr. Maher has produced one of the most excellent texts I’ve read in my past 30 years related to the systems-based approach of creating a proactive model of mental health care for athletes, coaches, and organizations. His experience, knowledge, and "real world" applications form a solid foundation for this book that will be a "must read" reference for psychologists, mental health providers, sports medicine staff, coaches, and athletics administrators. The recent movement in mental health care for athletes in all levels of sport requires a book such as this to help guide and direct future programs from a professional and competency-based approach. As a practicing counseling sport psychologist, I’ve valued Dr. Maher’s expertise, knowledge, and collegiality for the past 20+ years…this book is an essential and necessary resource in further developing professional mental health care in the arena of sports at all levels."Chris Carr, Director of Performance Psychology, Green Bay Packers, USA"In Fostering the Mental Health of Athletes, Coaches, and Staff, Dr. Charlie Maher uses a practical systems approach and draws on his 30+ years of experience fostering mental and emotional health of athletes and coaches in professional and collegiate sports to explain how to develop a psychologically healthy organization for competitive excellence. A must read!"Elizabeth L. Shoenfelt, Professor Emerita of Psychology at Western Kentucky University, USA "This is an excellent and accessible introduction for practitioners interested in using a systems approach to foster the mental health of athletes, coaches, and staff in sport organizations. In each chapter, Dr Maher covers a range of mental health-enhancing possibilities and offers wonderful insight to how these might be realised. This book is exactly what is needed within the field at this moment; After reading it you will come to appreciate that promoting mental health in sport is a multi-level task in nature and scope and requires attention, programs, and services at individual, team, and organizational levels."Dr Chris Wagstaff, Reader in Applied Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK"This book is a must read that provides a much needed addition to the sport psychology professional practice literature by examining the science and practice of how to support the mental health and wellbeing of the athletes, coaches, support staff and stake holders that operate within the environment of a sports organisation."Stephen Mellalieu, Professor in Sport Psychology and Associate Dean for Research, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK"This is an excellent and timely book on facilitating the mental health of athletes, coaches, and staff and fostering mental health in sport organizations. This systems approach is wonderfully and comprehensively presented. A must read for anyone working within sport organizations who values mentally healthy organizations and mentally healthy individuals within those organizations." Michael Sachs, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology at Temple University's College of Public Health, USA"This is exactly the book that the field and profession of sport psychology needs in the 21st century. Grounded in cutting-edge psychological science, Charles Maher provides practitioners with a state-of-art handbook on how to effectively support the mental health needs of athletes, coaches, and staff in sport organisations. The book is structured in such a way that each chapter logically builds on the preceding one, providing an overview of the main areas practitioners need to consider when working in this space, together with the detailed understanding and practical know-how required to have genuine impact on people’s lives. I have a feeling I’ll be coming back to this book time and again throughout my professional career."Dr. David Fletcher, Senior Lecturer in Performance Psychology and Management at Loughborough University, UK

• Preface1. Charting the Parameters of Mental Health in Sport Organizations2. Taking a Systems Approach to Mental Health in Sport Organizations3. Creating a Vision and Direction for Promoting Positive Mental Health4. Assessing the Readiness of a Sport Organization for Mental Health Initiatives5. Identifying and Gaining Commitments of Individuals who can Contribute to Mental Health6. Assessing the Mental and Emotional Development of Athletes in a Sport Organization.7. Designing and Implementing Mental Health Programs and Services8. Educating and Training Coaches and Staff as Mental Health Contributors9. Establishing and Sustaining a Team Environment in Support of Mental Health10. Formulating and Enacting Mental Health Policies, Plans, and Procedures at the Organizational Level11. Coordinating Mental Skills, Life Skills, and Mental Health Programs and Services12. Evaluating Mental Health Programs as a Basis for their Continuous Development and Improvement13. Making Decisions about the Continuous Development and Improvement of Mental Health Programs in Sport Organizations14. Concluding Comments and Next StepsAppendix A: Example of a Crisis and Emergency Action Plan for a Sport OrganizationAppendix B: Sample Evaluable Program Design for Mental Health Program