New Campaign Launched to Spotlight Mental Health Crisis in Youth Athletes

Inspired by May’s Mental Health Week, British competitive swimming family, Andrea, Jack and India Brown have launched a new campaign to raise awareness of the growing mental health crisis impacting the nation’s young athletes. The campaign aims to encourage youth sports clubs to start the conversation about mental health and take action. 

The family has gathered support from across the swimming community including from Olympic swimmers, Jemma Lowe and Ed Sinclair, Safeguarding Consultant Keith Oddy, Child Abuse Solicitor Dino Nocivelli, Forensic Psychiatrist Kike Anunobi, Jake Brown Performance Psychologist and Claire Kerslake, the Soundwell Swimming Club Welfare Officer.  

The nationwide campaign includes an educational documentary and supporting ebook which will inspire clubs at a grassroots level with ideas and templates designed to start positive conversations in families and clubs. 

According to Forensic Psychiatrist Kike Anunobi, “youth athletes experience around 600x more stressors”. There currently aren’t enough resources in place to support the mental health of young athletes and their coaches. Athletes are struggling with everything from performance anxiety to throwing up before a race and extreme perfectionism. 

The Brown’s family campaign has been completely self-funded and was inspired by their own mental health journey. “It’s difficult to talk about because it’s so private, but that’s part of the problem. No one talks about it so there is stigma and a reluctance to ask for help “As long as you have swimmers and other young athletes that are achieving, the underlying problems often get ignored and mental health is not prioritised,” they say.  

The family is making its mental health guidance available for free to the entire swimming community and youth sports everywhere. 

“This is a sport we love, but we have seen some things that make us sad, and we wanted to do something to give back. If we help one family or gives one club a new idea for something they can put in place, it’s a win”, says Andrea Brown. “Almost 100% of the focus is on the physical training side of things, even though experts like Kike Anunobi, Forensic Psychiatrist and Jake Brown Sports Psychologist believe that mental resilience and preparedness contribute to at least 60% of all athletic performance.”  

Anunobi confirms, “We spend time in the gym to make our muscles strong. The brain is a muscle too! If you don’t train it to be strong it will be weak. No one becomes strong by accident. You either become strong by experience or we teach ourselves to be strong.”  

Jake Brown adds, “People tend to be reactive only looking for mental health solutions after a problem has occurred and there’s a crisis. We need to be proactive about the mental health of athletes so that when they get into difficult and high-pressure situations, they already have the tools in place to deal with them,” says Mum Andrea Brown. 

Ed Sinclair, Olympian and Founder of Maximum Performances says, “I think the thing that separates the swimmers who go really far in the sport is their mental resilience.”   

The Brown family is hoping that the swimming communitywill take advantage of the free mental health first aid courses the campaign is making available to parents, coaches, and anyone interested in increasing their knowledge on the subject. Those completing the course will receive a level 2 certification in subjects like children and young people’s mental health, self-harm and suicide prevention, distressed behaviour and understanding autism. 

The ebook provides free resources like a template letter from swimming clubs to schools to encourage collaboration and communication.  To access the guide and video visit: [@Swim-mum on YouTube].