Australian Government - All Stars Support /

The NRL would like to thank the Australian Government Department of Health for their support over the last 3 years and their pivotal role in impacting positive mental health in our Rugby League communities, through our NRL All-Stars State of Mind program.

The Department of Health provided funding for the NRL to deliver a range of health promotion messages, workshops and education around Indigenous mental health through our NRL State of Mind program.

Over the last 3 years, Community Program Deliverers Preston Campbell and Clinton Toopi have delivered the NRL All-Stars State of Mind program to our Indigenous people and  communities all across Australia. The investment into the program allowed for a total of 79 worshops delivered to grassroots clubs, Clontarf Academies and Indigenous and Maori representative NRL teams during All-Stars week.

Snapshot of The State of Mind Community program impact

Through both our Grassroots and Get in the GAAME workshops designed specifically for Indigenous participants, we have been able to reach a wide range of age groups and increase the overall resilince of our Indigenous communities.

Targeting Indigenous people, the State of Mind program aims to:

• Use the NRL’s reach, profile, clubs and players to reduce stigma associated with mental health
• Increase players, staff and participants understanding of mental health
• Promote help-seeking behaviours by educating and providing appropriate resources to players and the wider community
• Empower grassroots clubs to form relationships with local mental health services

To be able to do this sort of work and something that I’m very passionate about, when you talk about community and especially mental health. I think for a lot of us, if we’re not touched with it personally, we know someone that has been touched by it, so it hits really close to home for a lot of us and that’s the main reason why I’m involved. The more people involved I believe, the more break through we can have with tackling this illness mental health.

Community Program Delilverer - Preston Campbell

A few words from Clinton Toopi

"I’ve really enjoyed my role as an advocate and the journey I’ve been on, as a NRL Community Program Deliverer for State of Mind. Since the programs inception in 2016 I’ve become more aware of the complexities around mental health and how the training I’ve gained through our expert partners and MHFA Australia can be implemented and be very effective in my role. The training and experience I’ve gained has given me the appropriate tools and confidence to deliver our life changing program.

Seeing reactions on the kids faces, learning and understranding the messages we are relaying through our Rugby League skills drills is very moving. You see it sink in when the heads nod or the faces light up as they link the skill they’ve just executed to how that relates to life is very rewarding. It’s always nice to receive positive feedback from the parents, their coaches and the players. This confirms how important our programs are and why we need to conitunue the great work the State of Mind program has to offer and for that I thank our great Game and the Australian Government.

Our team applauds the Australian Governments Health Department and we are very grateful they’ve intrusted our game to deliver important messages and education around positive mental health through Rugby League and the State of Mind program."

The NRL would again like to thank the Australian Government Department of Health for their support, along with of our expert partners; Headspace, Kids Helpline, Black Dog Institute and Lifeline for their contributions to the program. Without this support we would not have been able to reach these communities and provide them with tools and strategies to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of our participants.