My last blog post featured and article on college students and the rising number of college students who are suffering from mental illness. With this blog post, I am focusing more on a specific population of college students which are college student athletes. According to this article, NCAA athletes have long been supported both physically and academically but over the past few years, destigmatizing and treating mental illness has become a national priority for the NCAA although unfortunately there is still a long way to go. I work with many college student athletes who are dealing with not only the usual stressors of being a college student, but also the stressors that accompany being an athlete which both combined can be overwhelming for the athlete. There is a large disparity between the mental health support that is needed for student athletes and what is available to them but hopefully that gap will keep getting smaller as there is more awareness of the need for mental health support for athletes.
Please read the article below for more information on this topic:
https://www.theringer.com/2017/10/26/16535274/ncaa-student-athletes-mental-health-care-initiatives