Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by Sport Ireland that the aim of the research study mentioned by the Deputy is to evaluate the pilot One Good Coach online workshop.

One Good Coach is an evidence-informed mental health promotion workshop designed specifically for coaches and adult club members who coach young people in sport settings. The aim of the workshop is to provide adults with the knowledge and confidence to promote and support young people’s mental health in their coaching role.

To date, Jigsaw has delivered 120 One Good Coach workshops to a wide breadth of coaches in communities across Ireland. Given the success of the workshop in communities, One Good Coach was converted to an online workshop in 2018 to reach a wider national audience. Jigsaw partnered with the GAA’s Healthy Club Project to pilot the online workshop in 2019 and to date over 300 GAA coaches have completed the workshop.

One Good Coach is currently being rolled out with a range of sporting bodies, including the IRFU, Swim Ireland, Basketball Ireland and the FAI, reaching thousands of coaches across the country

A small group of registered coaches from Swim Ireland and the IRFU have been invited to take part in the research study. The study assesses whether the online workshop increases participants' understanding of mental health promotion and their confidence and intention to engage in mental health promoting behaviours with the young athletes they coach, as needed. Participants in the study are required to complete a short online questionnaire before they begin the workshop, one week after completing the workshop, and again twelve weeks later. Alongside this, a subset of participants are also invited to take part in a follow-up interview to gather further information as to the acceptability of the workshop to coaches.

The research study is underway with both National Governing Bodies until the end of March. To date, a number of coaches from both organisations have agreed to take part in the study and have completed the online questionnaires. As of 3rd March 2021, 30 coaches have completed the first two stages, i.e., at the beginning of the workshop and one week after completion.

Coaches are being invited to take part in follow-up interviews in the coming weeks.