ISSF commitment to athlete mental health

The ISSF recognizes that in order for all Athletes to give the very best of themselves in order to achieve greatness, they often find themselves in need of mental health support.

Mental Health Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Managing pressure
• Feeling burnt out/overwhelmed
• Harmony between sport and home life
• Managing life and/or career changes
• Handling stress
• Improving communication
• Dealing with injury
• Managing anxiety
• Depression
• Disordered eating
• Bullying, harassment and abuse
• Parenting

The ISSF is committed to helping to create a sport environment that helps support all ISSF Athletes’ well being and mental health.

To this end, we endorse the great work that has already been done by the International Olympic Committee and we offer as a resource to all our Athletes and their support team the IOC Tool Kit on Mental Health.

You can access it here:

IOC Mental Health in Elite Athletes Toolkit

The Toolkit for Mental Health in Elite Athletes has proven to be a valuable resource for many Olympic Movement Stakeholders and we trust that it will also be a great resource for all shooting sport athletes, their parents and their medical support teams and health care professionals.

All athletes, coaches, Member Federations, and members of medical and health care support teams are encouraged to carefully read the Tool Kit. ISSF is confidence that it will prove to be a valuable resource for all of you to benefit the health and mental well-being of all athletes.

As you will see,

IOC Mental Health in Elite Athletes Toolkit

the Tool Kit is divided into four main sections:

1. Section 1 - Introduction:
   It outlines the objective and scope of the toolkit, to whom it applies and how it was developed. It also details the frameworks that provide the foundation and directives for Olympic Movement stakeholders to address this important topic.
   
   
2. Section 2 – Mental Health Symptoms and Disorders in Elite Athletes
   It provides an overview of the multifaceted aspects of mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes, including terminology, prevalence and an overview of the IOC Mental Health Consensus Statement (2019).
   
   
3. Section 3 - Roles and Responsibilities
   Outlines the roles and responsibilities of three key stakeholder groups related to the creation of a psychologically supportive athletic environment. These stakeholder groups are sports organisations, athletes’ entourage members and health care professionals.
   
   
4. Section 4 – Resources
   It highlights many available resources and links to where to find further information.