In my sophomore year of high school, I took the teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) course as part of my gym class, and my number one takeaway is that mental health is just as important as physical health. This is especially true for student athletes like me, who often sacrifice their mental wellbeing for … Read more
In my sophomore year at Bellows Free Academy High School (St. Albans, Vermont), I attended a small conference at nearby St. Michael’s College that focused on the mental wellbeing of student-athletes. I participated in different activities and listened to different speakers, but what stuck with me the most was the final presentation. This was a … Read more
Four months before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin was diagnosed with depression, insomnia, anxiety and an eating disorder. Today, she is among a growing number of Olympic athletes who are speaking out about the importance of mental health (“Olympian Missy Franklin opens up on depression,” CNN, March … Read more
You may think jumping out of a car traveling 75 miles-per-hour would be a good reason for someone to seek mental health help. It wasn’t for Eric Hipple, former Detroit Lions quarterback. Prior to that uncompleted suicide attempt, his mental health hadn’t ever crossed his mind. Now, 20 years later, he’s working to break the … Read more
Visualize this: a college student athlete lies on a soccer field with a broken leg. Of course, she gets immediate attention from her teammates, trainers and coaches. A specific protocol is in place for how to deal with this type of injury, and a care plan is created for the following months of recovery. Compare … Read more
Even before the stress of college begins to set in, one in four students has a history of mental illness and treatment. That means 25 percent of college students have been formally diagnosed or treated for mental health issues – twice as many as non-college adults. On top of the usual college stressors, student athletes … Read more
The recent suicide of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez is only one of an upward trend in suicides of people in custody. Hernandez, who has been serving a life sentence since 2015, was found hanging in his cell on the morning of April 20, 2017, despite being placed on suicide watch. Too often, suicide watch … Read more
