The Ontario Hockey League and the Canadian Mental Health Association are partnering up to provide junior hockey players with a new initiative called Talk Today.
Talk today is a mental health education program specifically designed for OHL Teams, Like the London Knights to help deal with mental health issues.
The program will provide players with mental-health and suicide-awareness workshops and will make mental health coaches available for teams.
A mental Health coach will also be available to the team to connect people to services in the community and provide ongoing support and training to the team.
Kristy Cairns Manager of Communications at the CMHA Middlesex tells XFM news suicide is the second leading cause of death in young Canadians and particularly in the age group the OHL players would be in.
Cairns says they are trying to provide a safe community and where players are comfortable talking about their feelings and concerns, and recognize the signs
The initiative comes seven months after Saginaw Spirit player, Terry Trafford took his life after being cut from the team after a violation of the team’s rules.
Mental health awareness week runs until Saturday.
