Brain Health: Protecting the Brains of Athletes and Optimising Brain Health through Lifestyle Psychiatry brings together leading voices from lived experience, neurorehabilitation, neuropsychiatry, sports psychiatry and lifestyle medicine.
The conference will explore the complex relationship between repetitive head impacts, brain injury, mental health and long-term brain health in athletes, while considering what can be done now to better protect and support athletes throughout and beyond their sporting careers.
The programme features a powerful lived experience perspective from former professional rugby player Paul Pook, alongside clinical and psychiatric insights from Michael Leavitt and Dr James Burger. The event concludes with Claire Gillvray exploring how the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress management, social connection and avoiding harmful substances, can help promote brain resilience and support long-term cognitive and mental health.
Together, the speakers will challenge current approaches to athlete brain health and ask an important question: what does "good enough" protection look like, and what more can we do to safeguard athletes' brains and wellbeing?