Mental Health and Needs of (Swiss) Paralympics Athelets

Compared to regular professional sports, the mental health of professional para-athletes still needs to be investigated more, given a lack of scientific studies about this professional (but vulnerable at the same time) population. With the financial support of the Swiss Olympic, PluSport Behindertensport Schweiz (Umbrella Organisation of Swiss Disabled Sports) and the Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction ISGF want to close this gap and have launched a new scientific project to explore the understanding of the topic of mental health within this population. Furthermore, we want to investigate the stressors and protective factors for mental health in para-professional sports. In the long term, we aim to set the basis for further research and development on interventions to address the mental health needs of professional para-athletes. Within the project, we are going to conduct [together with other consortium partners (Swiss Society for Sports Psychiatry and Psychiatry SGSPP, Wheelchair Sports Switzerland, University of Graz)] three qualitative studies with athletes and their trainers and an international survey among the athletes.