Mr. Gerard Perry:

I am trained professional clinical psychologist. The interventions we would want would be a community response in the first instance, such as set out by my colleagues in terms of clubs and referee societies. We need to go in at that level. If it needs to escalate to another level, we could move to referee observers in terms of providing support and, finally, to GPs and up to counselling, if needs be.

Referees are a terribly strong, resilient group. A tiered approach is used, rather than going directly in with professional help.