The effectiveness of the ‘Tackling Depression in the AFL’ program, co-developed by beyondblue, the AFL Players’ Association and the AFL has been recognised with the resource receiving a prestigious Australian Institute of Training & Development (AITD) award.

‘Tackling Depression in the AFL’ received the Excellence in a Learning Resource award in recognition of the programs success in raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of depression as well as encouraging people to seek help.

The ‘Tackling Depression’ resource, which was rolled out to AFL clubs and AFL industry staff in 2007, contains video interviews of well known AFL players and other sports people talking about depression as well as video case studies and information sheets.

Award judges were impressed with the resource, commenting, “The winner has presented an excellent adaptation of an existing resource, targeting a specific market and basing the customisation on survey data. The winner has used a range of tools and support options such as video streaming, and presented a comprehensive and information approach to the need they were addressing.”

The success of the ‘Tackling Depression’ site has spawned further roll outs into other professional sports including the PGA and a soon to be releases program with the Australian Cricketers’ Association / Cricket Australia.