Sutch: Mental health advocacy a monumental step for OHL

Gregg Sutch played in the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons (2008-09 to 2012-13). Sutch, 22, was a first-round draft pick in the OHL and a fifth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2010 NHL entry draft. He has retired from playing hockey and will be writing on occasion for Yahoo Sports.

The announcement of the Ontario Hockey League partnering up with the Canadian Mental Health Association comes with great satisfaction. After the tragedy of Saginaw Spirit forward Terry Trafford, my friend and teammate, I had an extensive one-on-one meeting with OHL commissioner and CHL president, David Branch. We met to talk about the health of the game and the state of the players on and off the ice. Our main concern was for the mental health of the players and, to solve this, I suggested we put together a program that will give players access to professional help.

Branch agreed and that’s when we established that something needed to change. I was asked by the league to conduct a meeting over the course of the summer that involved players who had just graduated from the OHL as overagers. Having a group of recent alumni allowed us to discuss the state of the game with fresh memory and recent experience.

Mental health is a buzzword in today’s game and it was prevalent in the meeting I had with the players. In the past years, Branch had run similar meetings but he felt like the players would only tell him what he wanted to hear, as opposed to me running the meeting and the players feeling comfortable with telling me how they truly felt.

We had broken down the meeting into different topics but everything seemed to come back to mental health. Players felt like there wasn’t enough in place for them to seek the help if desired. There was also a lack of knowledge of what mental illness entails: What are the signs to look for? How do we address it? There was also the issue of making sure players felt comfortable talking about their mental health.

One area that all hockey players struggle with is putting aside their macho attitude. Now that the OHL has established a partnership with the CMHA, it is with hope that players will now feel comfortable to talking to a professional without feeling embarrassment or shame in doing so.

At the conclusion of the meeting, I relayed the talks I had with the players to Branch and his staff and they understood that mental health was the most important issue that came out of our meeting. It became evident from that discussion that something needed to be put in place for not only the players, but the coaching staff, parents, billet parents, and anybody else who is involved with an organization.

I truly believe this partnership is a monumental step in the right direction for the OHL and the game of hockey. Having this program in place will encourage players to talk to the professionals if they seek the help.

In the past, there was nothing and no one for players to seek help from. Not only will this program help players confront current issues if there are any, but it will provide lots of knowledge for people involved with any OHL organization. People always ask if I saw the death of Terry Trafford coming and I always say, “No, I would never have guessed for this to happen.”

I wonder now if there had been more knowledge supplied for the players, coaching staff, management, parents, and billet families if Terry’s death could have been prevented. It may not have been, but we will never know that for sure.

As a result of this program, there will be a mandatory SafeTalk seminar provided to all OHL teams, effective immediately. This is great for everybody because with more knowledge of mental health issues comes a greater chance of preventing further tragedies if players seek help if they feel it’s necessary. Not only will this program provide knowledge for the players but it will also school the billet parents, parents, and management who see and talk to the players almost every day. With everybody gaining this valuable information, I consider it a great thing for the OHL and I can see it being very helpful in the long run. It’s now up to the players and everybody else involved to buy into the program.

Ultimately, this partnership is exactly what needed to be formed. We don’t want to lose another brother in the hockey world and this is a great first step.