By Peter Ryan and Jake Niall
AFL clubs have been warned not to employ contractors without formal psychology qualifications in roles that could impact players’ psychological health.
In a league memo sent to clubs and seen by this masthead, officials were advised of the dangers of contracting “pseudo-psychological” practitioners as the AFL ramps up its focus on supporting participants’ mental health and wellbeing.
The AFL sent a memo to clubs about qualifications required for psychologists.Credit: Design: Marija Ercegovac
The September directive encouraged clubs to put resources into psychological services, but indicated the league’s desire to ensure any initiatives to improve high performance that relate to mental health are overseen by qualified practitioners.
The AFL is keen to ensure clubs develop team-specific performance programs that consider players’ psychological safety.
In the memo, the AFL wrote:
“Clinical governance pertaining to psychological services is essential for clubs to ensure minimum professional, ethical and safety standards are met by the providers of psychological services to players.
“The protected title of ‘psychologist’ cannot legally be used to describe contractors who are not registered psychologists.
“Clubs who contract pseudo-psychological practitioners are exposed to significant risks in clinical governance, particularly if those contractors are not integrated into the club doctor and club psychologist risk escalation and management practices”.
All clubs were expected to have a minimum 0.6 full-time equivalent psychological services available to both AFL and AFLW programs in season, with the memo noting the investment of clubs is “highly variable” and that the AFLW was underresourced.
Appropriately qualified psychologists are required to meet professional standards in relation to the standard of care and confidentiality.
The memo indicated there were “a small number of players” who required ongoing management out of season.
The AFL outlined in the memo the essential roles of club psychologists to ensure there was universal understanding of what expertise was necessary and clarity about who was involved in decision-making around players when it came to psychological health.
Among those duties was the expectation that club psychologists would:
- Provide input and approval of any camp activities involving external consultants, or any club-based activities involving mental skills, psychological processes, mental toughness or any activities with the potential to impact player psychological health
- Consult on draft recruitment practices such as interviewing and profiling to provide psychological insight
In 2023, 155 AFL-listed and 206 AFLW-listed players sought free, confidential and professional counselling support through the player union, according to the AFL Players Association’s annual insights and impact report. The union serves as an adjunct to the services clubs provide.
The head of the AFL’s mental health and wellbeing unit Kate Hall told this masthead in June that the league was being proactive in the area and “everything we do is evidence-informed, and it has to be because this is really serious as an area”.
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