Lifeline Community Custodians Program Insights
The Lifeline Community Custodians program, an AIS–Lifeline Australia partnership enabled twenty-one elite athletes the opportunity to increase awareness around suicide prevention and the importance of reaching out for help.
Nineteen of the 2019–20 Community Custodians participated in a concept mapping project to provide athlete-driven insights into the benefits of the program.
Research questions
Question 1
What benefits have athletes experienced from being involved in the AIS Lifeline Community Custodian program?
Question 2
How important is the benefit?
Question 3
How influential is the benefit on athletic training and performance?
Key findings
Athletes identified 50 unique benefits from participating in the program. These can be summarised by six key themes:
- Opportunity to contribute to the community
- An advocate for mental health and wellbeing
- Learning and developing new skills
- Personal development
- Building networks and connections
- Additional benefits
20 of the 50 benefits were rated above average for importance and influence. The four most important benefits of participating in the program for athletes were:
- It provides athletes with an opportunity to be role models in the community
- It provides an opportunity to let everyone know that they are not alone
- It started positive conversations about mental health
- Athletes heard other people’s experiences and why mental health is important to them