ABSTRACT
Poor mental health can be caused by sports injury, especially severe or recurrent injuries. Despite knowing that injury is a largely negative experience for athletes that can lead to poor mental health, athletes rarely engage with help-seeking behaviours to gain support with their sports injury. The purpose of this chapter is threefold: (1) summarize knowledge on poor mental health, symptoms and disorders associated with sports injury; (2) discuss barriers and facilitators to help-seeking behaviours in sport and (3) provide evidence-informed strategies for improving mental health in injured athletes. Examination of the literature within this area suggests that depression (an associated maladaptive behaviours), fear of re-injury, re-injury anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are problematic responses to sports injury and indicators of poor mental health in injured athletes. The main barriers to help-seeking behaviours are stigma, low mental health literacy, negative past experiences with seeking mental health support and scheduling or time demands. Suggestions to facilitate help-seeking behaviours are included and future research directions are summarized.
