Mental health issues have been a growing concern in New Zealand communities, and the racing industry have decided to take action in this area with the launch of OnTrack.

The independent organisation, which is funded by the three racing codes, was officially launched, alongside their OnTrack to Action programme, during Mental Health Awareness week (September 23-29) at a function at Cambridge Raceway on Monday.

OnTrack chief executive Victoria McArthur is excited about improving the mental health support offering in racing.

“On Track was conceived by industry. It is basically around three codes with one goal – we want to see an improvement in people’s mental health that are working in racing,” McArthur said.

“We want to also upskill people around preventing suicide as well. When people are at that point of distress, that we have got the skills to support each other during that time.

“We are a charitable organisation, and we sit between the three codes of racing, so we are independent. When you come to OnTrack, or you are working with OnTrack, everything is confidential that you talk with us about.”

OnTrack has been launched on the back of mental health research specifically undertaken on the New Zealand racing industry, and McArthur is looking forward to putting the research findings into practice.

“Mental wellbeing is not particularly good globally, and the pandemic didn’t help,” she said.

“We set out last year to get a good understanding of the (racing) industry and to develop a programme that the industry was happy with, and the industry have had a lot of input into that.

“We did a research piece to get a bit of a baseline around what is happening for the people working or volunteering in the New Zealand racing industry. We have got the results of that survey that show us that there is some quite alarming levels of poor mental wellbeing and suicide ideation.

“There are also things around how people work in racing that make it quite challenging at times for increasing stress levels, and things like lack of sleep that are all contributing to poor mental health.

“We also know there is some really good stuff that happens in racing, and that is the most important thing. We know there is some strength to racing like the love of the animal, the passion for racing, and there is a real community within the racing industry, which is what we are building on with this programme.

“We are going to bring this community and camaraderie that exists to the forefront and get the industry to lead this themselves and play their part in how they can develop and support each other and connect to help when they need it.

“As we launch in mental health awareness week, the support that we are putting in place are some of the things that the industry has asked for, which is an education programme. We will be running our first session down at Cambridge on the 23^rd of September.

“We will talk about some of the existing issues in racing, some of the strengths, and some things we can all do to notice when someone is struggling and how we might be able to support that person and connect them into the right help.

“From there, we will be upskilling more people. People can volunteer that want to know a little bit more about this and want to be champions of the racing industry in this space of mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

“We will give them the skills to get more of an understanding around how to keep people safe and also around what really good peer support looks like, what they can do to support each other, some of the simple things that they can do to grow this in their workplaces, at the tracks, and all the other elements of racing that they can actually implement this programme themselves.”

McArthur said the organisation can also guide industry participants into counselling and other mental health services if required, and they will be present at industry events to grow the message around mental health in racing.

“What we already have in place is an EAP programme, which is counselling support,” McArthur said. “But some of it might be developing self-care plans, so we work with people in how you can improve your mental health and wellbeing.

“We will also have things that bring people together, like barbeques, that will be run by industry, but we will support our industry and individuals to grow that community aspect of racing.”

McArthur said that people who go to OnTrack for support will be treated as an individual in their mental health journey.

“Mental health and suicide prevention is quite complex, there isn’t a one size fits all, we need to make sure we are working with the individual on what is the right support for them,” she said.

For more information, visit: ontrack.org.nz