The 32-year-old sharpshooter had her world rocked in 2018 when she lost her uncle to suicide.
The loss hit O’Hea and her family hard, but it was her struggle to open up on the feelings and grief experienced after her uncle’s death that had really taken their toll.
It led O’Hea to look into mental health issues in Australia and inspired her to make a difference.
“I think there is a stigma in Australia around mental health and I really want to reduce that,” O’Hea said.
“There are way too many lives taken by suicide in this country. If I can open the conversation and get people talking about it more openly then that is what I hope to accomplish.
“It means everything to me and I just want to save as many lives as I can. Mental health and suicide prevention is so important and something I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Determined to use her profile and the basketball community to spread the word, O’Hea teamed up with Lifeline and the WNBL to launch Lifeline Round in 2019.
The entire league got behind the initiative with each club donating $100 for every three-point basket made during that week’s fixtures, with the money going towards Lifeline’s crisis support service.
“I didn’t really know how it would go and I just wanted to raise some money and help out as best I could,” O’Hea said.
“Justin Nelson at the Melbourne Boomers helped set it up with me. Every single team, every player and the WNBL really got around it and helped me raise $15,000.”
“Again this season, the second time we have had the Lifeline Round, all the players were on board and wanted to do anything they could to help spread the message.”
As well as leading the WNBL’s Lifeline Round, O’Hea is also one of 20 Australian athletes working with Lifeline and the Australian Institute of Sport to help raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention across the nation.
O’Hea’s efforts were recognised in 2020 by the Victorian Institute of Sport who named her the winner of the Sarah Tait Spirit Award for being an inspirational role model both in and outside of her sport.
Jenna O'Hea joins Megan Hustwaite to chat all things WNBL, Opals, Olympics and her love for superstar teammate Liz Cambage during this weeks episode of TAB Courtside 1v1 from 7 pm Thursday, March 11 on the SBS Sport Facebook page.
