Guidelines for a sport specific Employee Assistance Programme

by Basson, Tamsyn.

The need for an EAP in a sport environment is considered on the basis of a questionnaire completed by a group of Netball players and an overview of the high performance environment of elite athletes. The questionnaire covered the personal, work(career), home and sporting environments of the respondents with a view to identify those stressors that could possibly impact on performance on the playing field. The particular profile of the responding group of Netball players is taken into consideration. Responses received from the group of Netball players together with the characteristics of the high pressure world of high performance or “elite” athletes provides insight into the nature of the related factors at work in this environment. General principles involved in EAP, as applicable in normal workplace situations, are reviewed and the support services provided compared with the support services generally available to athletes. Support services provided by sports organisations are essentially focused on the physical well-being of the athlete and very little is available to attend to the emotional needs of athletes. The stressful environment within which elite athletes function impact the mental wellbeing of athletes dramatically and interventions are required to ensure that performance quality is not affected It is concluded that existing support services for athletes are deficient with respect to their emotional needs. By extending traditional athlete support systems to include the basic principles of EAP it is possible to support both the physical and emotional needs of elite athletes. Guidelines for such a sport specific EAP is provided. University of Pretoria etd – Basson, T (2005) 4