South West South has pulled together a panel of experts to talk about an important issue during the coronavirus pandemic.
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SWS will premier its Tackling the stigma: A conversation about the role of sport in mental health webinar on its Facebook page on Friday at 7pm.
Program officer Marli Blackney-Noter leads the discussion with Dr Jodie Fleming (The Psychology of It), Linda Holland (Lifeline) and John Parkinson (co-founder of Let's Talk Foundation).
SWS team manager of programs Kimberley Ransfield, who the drove the project, felt it important to have a discussion about the topic in relation to regional sport.
"We had a look and there are a lot of webinars and the like out there," she said.
"But there hasn't been much regarding mental health in a community sport setting.
"We thought there was gap."
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Ransfield said more and more elite athletes were speaking about their own mental health battles but that hadn't translated to community sport.
She said the one-and-a-half hour conversation covers how people could deal with the anxiousness of the pandemic and cope with the absence of sport.
"We're hoping it cuts through the noise in terms of the online content out there," she said.
Dr Fleming, a Warrnambool-based clinical and health psychologist, works with South West Academy of Sport Athletes - a program that develops the region's next generation of sports stars.
She created The Psychology of It website in 2016 which has blossomed into an online resource base.
It aims to destigmatise mental illness and promote better mental health care.
Holland, a suicide prevention services coordinator, works at Lifeline South West Victoria.
Nominations close on Sunday for the SWS's Amazon Sports Star Awards.
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