Olympian, Rugby star and Laois GAA great speak at Laois event on sports and mental health

Laois and Stradbally GAA star Colm Begley will be joined by an Irish Olympian and international rugby player in an upcoming event that will explore the importance  

The Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) will host the free public talk on sport and mental health at the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise which features Olympian turned RTÉ athletics presenter David Gillick, Irish rugby star Brittany Hogan, and Colm Begley who is the Player Welfare and Engagement Manager for the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) .

The organisers say the free event in November explores the following topics:

• How conversations about sport and mental health have evolved over the past number of years.
• The pressures of being an elite athlete in different codes, and individual versus team pressures.
• The aspects of elite sport that are hardest to manage.
• The impact of social media commentary on athletes.
• The impact of sports people speaking openly about mental health struggles.

PSI president Dr Vincent McDarby states: “As always with the PSI Annual Conference, we offer a free public event to the locality. I am delighted that we are in Portlaoise this year and able to offer a free talk on sport and mental health; two extremely important aspects of so many people’s daily lives.”

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The event takes place on Wednesday, November 9 and coincides with the PSI Annual Conference which takes place at the hotel over the week.

To book a free place to attend please see www.psychologicalsociety.ie