Query
Template: /var/www/farcry/projects/fandango/www/action/sherlockFunctions.cfm
Execution Time: 4.25 ms
Record Count: 1
Cached: Yes
Cache Type: timespan
Lazy: No
SQL:
SELECT top 1 objectid,'cmCTAPromos' as objecttype
FROM cmCTAPromos
WHERE status = 'approved'
AND ctaType = 'moreinfo'
objectidobjecttype
11BD6E890-EC62-11E9-807B0242AC100103cmCTAPromos

Mind, Body and Sport

November 30, 2016 Byran Hinnen

After my last blog discussing three main areas to focus on when working with student-athletes, I wanted to dive a bit deeper and look into meeting the needs of student-athletes’ mental health.  But first… the shameless plug:

The Student-Athlete Knowledge Community is working hard to ensure we are educating our members on the issues that student-athletes may come across during their time on our campuses.  This year’s focus, as mentioned before, is mental health, and how it affects student-athletes.  For more information and resources, please follow the link below to our education plan.  DON’T forget to click the “Join Knowledge Community” Button in the upper right.

https://www.naspa.org/constituent-groups/kcs/student-athlete/resources

Now, as I was mentioning before, I wanted to take some time to highlight the Knowledge Community’s Education Plan and mental health.  Below is a link to a resource that was published by the NCAA and focuses on this topic specifically.  The title says it all, Mind, Body and Sport: Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness.  There is a plethora of information broken into six different chapters that I will provide a brief overview of and allow you to dive deeper as needed/desired.

*I will preface this with the statement that each of the articles listed in the six chapters are about 1-3 pages so it is an easy read, and something to fill those “awkward ten minutes” we find ourselves in before/after a meeting.

https://www.naspa.org{filedir_3}Mind_Body_and_Sport.pdf

Chapter One:  First-Person Perspective

This chapter focuses on actual first-person stories of mental health and how it has affected them.  It includes personal stories from student-athletes, coaches and staff fighting depression stemming from injury, illness or other causes.  These powerful testimonials are focused on how they have used their experience to help others who may be going through the same issues they did.  There are some excellent resources in this chapter for anyone looking to gain a better understanding holistically of helping a student-athlete who may be going through mental illness.

Chapter Two: Positioning the Experts

This chapter actually provides perspective from both Psychologist and Psychiatrist, highlighting the role they play as well as potential barriers.  These articles even include different models that can be reviewed/implemented at different institutions based upon their resource level.

Chapter Three: Dissecting the Disorders

This chapter discusses the many different disorders that are commonly found within the realm of student-athletes.  These articles range from eating disorders, sleeping disorders and mood disorders.  There are even articles on gambling and suicidal tendencies.  Each of the articles include sections on the different factors that can contribute to the disorder. They even touch on health consequences, performance consequences, and some even include questions for reflection.  This chapter is a GREAT starting point if you feel you have a student-athlete with a specific disorder/problem.

Chapter Four: The Big Injury

How do student-athletes cope with injury and not being able to compete or practice with their teammates?  This chapter does an excellent job of educating on how to help student-athletes, even as far as giving suggestions for coaches and athletic trainers.  There are also excellent articles on Post-Concussion Syndrome and supporting student-athletes in transition to help educate on these subjects.

Chapter Five: Social and Environmental Risk Factors

This chapter focuses on an array of risk factors for different sub-groups of the student-athlete population, including harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ and ethnic minorities.  There are articles that focus on hazing, bullying and sexual violence as well. 

Chapter Six:  What Do You Do Now?

This chapter is what wraps all of it together and focuses on moving forward and working in a more intentional way with student-athletes.  Providing best practices for Athletic Departments as well as discussing some of the professional associations out there available to access and learn more about these issues and how they are being approached on individual campuses.

Now… I understand that is a lot of information to process and a lot of it may not be relevant to your specific need, I mean… holy dang… 120 pages?  If you work with student-athletes on a regular basis this is an excellent starting point for learning more about specific issues and how you may be able to help.  For that matter, this is an excellent resource for ANY of our students as this information applies to all of our students.  With our team (16 RAs, 2 Grads and 1 FTE – yes relatively large) we broke up the articles and discussed 3-4 articles briefly during staff meetings to ensure we were keeping these issues at the forefront of our mind as we go through the year.  Maybe that would work for your area, maybe not… regardless, this information would be beneficial for anybody working in Student Affairs as mental health is a hot topic that is not going away.

Bryan L. Hinnen is the Director of Headington Hall at the University of Oklahoma.  He currently serves as the Regional Representative for the Student Athletes Knowledge Community for NASPA Region IV-West.  Bryan can be reached at [email protected].