Canadian hockey star Carey Price recently admitted to participating in the NHL's Mental Health Assistance Program.
This assistance program was set up by the National Hockey League to deal with the explosion of cases of depression among players in the late 1990s.
More generally, after years of taboo, the issue of depression among top athletes finally seems to be taken seriously.
It's a comeback that caused a lot of talk, as we say among our Quebec friends. Montreal Canadiens superstar goaltender Carey Price stepped back on the skates for the first time on Monday, after more than a month of hiatus spent treating the mental health problems he had dragged himself on for many years.
For those who, like us, do not follow a pitcher of ice hockey news, a little background first.
At the beginning of October, as the NHL season was about to begin, the wife of the national hockey goalkeeper announced that her husband had decided to put his professional life on hold to join the League's aid program. , creating an explosion in the puck world.
"Here in Quebec, we talk more about Carey Price than the Prime Minister, so you can imagine that this announcement had the effect of a bomb", confirms Raphaël Doucet, sports journalist and radio host on "91.9 Sports
".
Since then, the player has taken the floor officially to explain his decision.
“Over the past few years, I have let myself sink into a state of darkness from which it has become impossible for me to come out without help.
Last month, therefore, I made the decision to integrate the treatment center (…) I am currently working to restore my own mental health after years of neglecting it.
The center he talks about is part of a vast program set up by the NHL in 1996 to help hockey players suffering from psychological disorders such as depression and / or addictions to alcohol or drugs. or drugs of all kinds.
The NHL, a pioneer in this field in North America
If the League thanked us for the interest we showed in this subject, it did not wish to expand on it to "preserve and respect the privacy of athletes". “Here too, we have few details,” says Raphaël Doucet. What we know is that athletes are in closed retirement, they are taken care of from A to Z by the assistance program, there are psychologists, therapists, addictologists who are there to support them. from day to day over more or less long periods. "
For a long time taboo in a "macho par excellence, where we want men, real men", dixit Doucet, the depression of hockey players is now a subject openly discussed in NHL, to the point of making it a pioneer among sports leagues North American.
It must be said that the problem was deep, as explained by former player Georges Laraque, now a consultant to Montreal radio.
“The pressure from the fans, the media, the fear of not meeting expectations, I knew it and I know that can make you super down.
Guys who fall into depression, I've known plenty of them during my career.
Many have fallen into drugs or alcohol, some have gone as far as suicide.
"
Usually, most of the players who join the program prefer to keep it a secret, for fear of appearing to be small things that are fragile in the eyes of others.
Which makes Carey Price's speech all the more powerful.
“In Canada, he's a mega star, his voice counts,” recounts the Quebec journalist.
The
players might be like, "If Carey had the courage to ask for help and received public support, why not me?"
".
Raphaël Doucet was also able to observe the public's benevolence towards the goalkeeper of the Montreal Canadiens.
“It was very well received,” he says.
We did open lines about it and I would say 90% of the people calling praised Carey Price for his courage.
"It is proof that mentalities are changing," Laraque clutches.
Twenty years ago, he would have been insulted from all sides, people would have said "well let's see, with all the money he earns, with the job he does, what is this business? ".
Instead, people applauded him, proof that we are moving in the right direction.
"
Football is seriously behind
Quite the opposite of what Neymar experienced a few weeks ago, remember. When the Brazilian had dared to evoke a certain weariness in the face of pressure, going so far as to say that the World Cup in Qatar would be the last of his career, he ate a flood of comments at best derogatory, at worst hateful, even pushing him to reconsider his words. What makes say to the former pro footballer Vincent Gouttebarge, today head of the medical service of Fifpro, that the subject is still too taboo in football. We understand physical injuries but, paradoxically, a problem as medical as that of mental health is not accepted in the same way by the general public. "
However, the problem does exist, as evidenced by the latest scientific studies conducted by the world union of pro gamers.
One even concluded that 38% of active footballers suffered from depression and anxiety, a much higher rate than the rest of the population.
However, by the admission of Vincent Gouttebarge, who led these surveys in collaboration with many scientific experts, "we are still behind in the field of supporting footballers".
Today, he would like us to step up a gear.
How? 'Or' What ?
Allow clubs and selections to integrate psychologists or psychiatrists into medical staff, as the NBA did from 2018. “Today, in these staffs, we have a whole battery of doctors,
cardiologists, orthopedists, I do not see why there should not also be specialists in mental health, ”explains Gouttebarge.
The authorities should also act by creating support structures for players in psychological distress.
"If we ask them to knock on the door, behind we must of course be able to help them concretely," he continues.
This is what the UNFP (the French players' union) did four years ago, by setting up a hotline allowing players who so wish to discuss with psychologists.
"Now the authorities are moving on this"
On a larger scale, international bodies are also starting to mobilize, such as FIFA, which has launched a vast awareness campaign on the issue of footballer depression. “But it's not only in football that things are moving,” reminds us of the man who also heads the working group on mental health of the International Olympic Committee. During the Tokyo Olympics, and for the first time in history, the IOC, for example, made available to all athletes a telephone line that they could call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anonymously, in order to be redirected to a mental health professional ”.
Because it is the world of sport as a whole that must take the problem of depression seriously, as evidenced by recent examples of Naomi Osaka at the last Roland Garros or Simone Biles in Tokyo.
And our expert concluded on a positive note: “We are not yet at the level of the American leagues but, now, the authorities are moving on this.
After years of taboo and denial, it had indeed become urgent to act.
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