In the past few years, conversations around athletes and mental health have dramatically increased. Everyone has heard about this need to “end the stigma” and “having conversations” but what does this actually mean?
A group of UW-Madison student-athletes gathered to discuss the importance of mental health to kick off May, Mental Health Awareness Month. The following student-athletes took time to have this valuable conversation: David Vannucchi (Cross Country), Sania Copeland (Basketball), Austin Gomez (Wrestling), Katie Kotlowski (Hockey), Madison Mooney (Track & Field), and Emma Jaskaniec (Soccer).
As a senior going to a sport psychology master’s program after graduation, I have been paying attention to how our university has discussed mental health since my freshman year. The department within athletics has evolved over my four years. What once was known as the department of Clinical Sport Psychology is now known as Mental Health & Sport Psychology.
Dr. David Lacocque leads the department with one Senior Psychologist and four Mental Health Services providers designated for athletics. At the start of my four years there were three professionals on the team and none of the MHS providers were allocated to the athletic department.
The mental health and sport psychology team has clearly expanded which is a positive. There are many professional sports teams and collegiate athletics departments who don’t have that number of resources. At the same time, it’s important to know the breakdown of six allocated providers for the almost one thousand student-athletes.
If every one of the, let’s round up to 1000, student-athletes wants sessions with a provider, there would be 166 students per provider. Of course, there are alternatives such as group therapy or team sessions. Additionally, sessions could be on the shorter side and less frequently. That being said, no clinical psychologist has 166 clients on their regular rotation, so why is there an exception when it comes to sports?
All of that being said, the attention to this field, the student-athletes, and how we talk about mental health has most definitely changed for the better. However, we have only just crossed the start line and have a whole marathon ahead of us.
As Wisconsin has started inviting conversations around mental health, the university took the dialogue to their social media platforms:
This past week student-athletes gathered to contribute to the conversation which can be viewed here:
David Vannucchi, a redshirt junior on the cross-country team, spoke about how student-athletes are forced to think exclusively about their sport and how the struggles outside of their sport are dismissed. This emphasis on sports over mental health is something that becomes conditioned into athletes and can be harmful for any individual.
I recall many high school coaches and club sport coaches who forced this perspective onto myself as I grew up. This is one of the goals for the field in destigmatizing the conversation around mental health because everyone has struggles, and these struggles are not exclusive to sports.
Austin Gomez, a redshirt senior on the wrestling team, brought up the stigma of toughness and vulnerability. This stigma is present across all athletes as there is an expectation to be “tough” but what does that really mean? How about exchanging the concept of toughness with resilience or perseverance? Toughness has a connotation of how much can you handle before you break, something that should be prevented if possible.
At the end of the day, these conversations are so crucial for everyone to be having. It is great that Wisconsin and our Badger athletes are having these conversations, and they should keep having them. Until mental health becomes commonplace and the stigma has diminished, we can’t stop opening up, discussing, and asking questions.