Document resource
Mental health symptoms and disorders affect elite athletes as well as others operating within a competitive elite sport environment.1 Reviews that focus on athletes2 and coaches3 4 underscore the imperative for comprehensive, multilevel interventions aimed at prevention, early identification and effective management. Mental health literacy strategies play a distinct role within this continuum by shaping how mental health symptoms are recognised, interpreted, discussed and acted upon before individuals enter formal clinical pathways. Findings across diverse populations within elite sport highlight the importance of mental health literacy strategies for promoting timely help-seeking and increasing engagement with mental healthcare.5 Mental health literacy is therefore not a substitute for psychiatric or psychotherapeutic treatment but an upstream complementary approach that influences whether, when and how individuals and organisations mobilise support.6 The purpose of this editorial is to argue that mental health literacy strategies in elite sport must move beyond individual information provision towards culturally informed and organisationally structured strategies that enable meaningful help-seeking and improve access to mental healthcare.