hi I'm Curtis McGrath three-time gold medalist in power canoe an Australian Army veteran this year the AIS conducted Research into mental health and well-being of Australian high performance athletes coaches and support staff and thank you to those who provided input the results tell us about half have experienced some type of mental health difficulty recently and no one is immune from experiencing things like anxiety depression or Suicidal Thoughts the good news is that we have world-class services available to help and it's great to see more and more of our Sporting Community putting their hand up for support we know that services like the AIS mental health referral Network are making a real difference and in some cases saving lives the network provides free confidential advice from mental health professionals who understand high performance Sport and today has helped more than 1200 athletes coaches and support staff to get back on track the AIS will continue to work alongside Sports to ensure that people are aware of the services and feel supported in all stages of their career so if you're ready to make change reach out to the mental health referral Network team and let them take care of the rest