// NZ RUGBY WORLD // june/july 2015

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MENtal WEllBEiNg

pdM’S picK up

Mental wellbeinG

toolS

z’s rugBy’s netwOrk Of PersOnal

develOPment managers dOn’t Have

all tHe answers But tHanks tO

a cOmPreHensive recent mental

HealtH and well-Being cOurse - featuring

fictiOnal scenariOs like maaka’s - tHey’re

nOw mOre equiPPed tO ask sOme Pertinent

questiOns.

The course, run by Blueprint for Learning and the

Ministry of Health, aims to help frontline support

staﬀ recognise, relate and respond to people

experiencing mental illness and ﬁtting it in to the

two-day National PDM conference was an ideal

match.

“It was quite enlightening,” Hawke’s Bay PDM

Aayden Clarke explained. “These are the sort

of subjects people usually just skip over but we

dug into some deep stuﬀ on the course, using

people with real-life experiences. Some of those

scenarios were quite close to home and we can

relate to them really easily.

“We’re never going to become professionals,

who can handle this sort of thing in one day but to

be able to identify it and put some actions in place

is really valuable.”

Course facilitators Rachel Stephenson and Egan

Bidois ran through some of the statistics relating

to mental illness in New Zealand, with addiction,

Maaka is a young player on

the rise, with ﬁrm prospects

of a professional contract

and a proud family banking

on his success.

Lately, however, he hasn’t

been himself. Withdrawn,

moody – and even telling

academy teammates he’s

sick of rugby and wants to

take a break.

Is Maaka feeling familial

pressure? Is he just going

through a rough patch? Or

is there something more

serious going on?