Last week, I mentioned Gor Mahia coach Johnathan McKinstry attributing his charges’ good run in the Kenyan Premier League to their “mental strength”.
Incidentally, writing in this newspaper about a week earlier, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya Secretary-General Francis Mutuku penned: “Relationships on the rocks, financial challenges, negative family dynamics, or even sports performance challenges.
“The Kenyan perspective is even more dire. Athletes going for international assignments while facing numerous personal life challenges, pretty much like every other Kenyan, is very common.
“The issues include family conflicts, unpaid rent, unpaid loans, school fees, marital conflicts and great financial expectations from family and friends.”
Unfortunately, many of our sportsmen and women undergo lots of mental stress which is often unreported, until it is too late. In my other hat as a mental health advocate, I have come face to face with these icons stoically facing mental health challenges with no recourse.
I believe it is time we moved this debate to the public domain. To begin with, it is okay to tell our sports heroes that it is okay not to be okay and that going to see a shrink should be made a normal health regimen. Just like a visit to the dentist or a gynecologist.
We need to go beyond the stigma and make our sports people have safe spaces to talk of the malaise they are facing, after all we all go through stress at one point or another.
Kudos to the nabobs at the helm of our athletics for taking the bull by the horns and addressing the elephant in the room.
The sad reality is that many of our local football clubs do not invest much in terms of mental wellbeing of their players.
Fresh out of school or college these players, exhibiting effulgence soon find themselves earning a salary they only dreamt of and with that all the “freedom”and hedonistic lifestyles that money can buy. It never ends quite well for those who choose this path.
Ray Oruo, the Gor Mahia chief executive officer, says the issue of players’ mental health needs to be addressed at its roots— taking care of their basic needs.
“At the root of all this is the issue of contracts and players’ wages. If clubs are in a good position to honour their pay commitments to the players then the latter would have no problem delivering on the pitch and also have stable mental health.
It is when the players start worrying about fundamental issues like putting food on the table and paying rent that they run into mental health challenges,” he says.
Stella Kivuti is a counselling psychologist at the Retreat Rehabilitation Centre in Tigoni, Limuru.
She says heightened expectations from sportspeople may make some of them develop mental problems.
“Sports give people an avenue to express themselves as well as release stress and tension. However, with high expectations on performance some become maladjusted and get into substance abuse.
She explains that there needs to be a good connection for all team members to perform as a team and that at times this does not happen leading to disagreements and other negative results.”
We all know of Conjestina Achieng’, the hard hitting former boxing champion who has suffered from a mental condition for some time now. It took the intervention of politician Mike Sonko to come to the rescue and have her admitted at the Mombasa Women Empowerment Rescue Centre.
She is near full recovery and is soon hitting the ring again, according to her minders at the centre. BY DAILY NATION