UD, Dayton Children's work to break stigma around student-athlete mental health
DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) -- May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the recent spike in suicides among NCAA athletes is sparking concern across the nation.
Now Dayton Children’s Hospital and the University of Dayton are working to break the stigma.
Linh-Han Ikehara, a behavioral health therapist with Dayton Children’s Hospital’s Center for the Female, explains this is an issue that’s disproportionately impacting local high school and collegiate-level athletes.
“They talk about just the stress with balancing commitments with school, and athletic performance can be really exhausting,” Ikehara said.
While this pandemic has prompted a mental health crisis in general, data shows student-athletes are at a greater risk for eating disorders, social anxiety, and substance abuse. Ikehara adds freshmen and women are at a higher risk of developing depression. She noted that risk is even greater among injured athletes.
“Now we have statistically 30-plus percent of our student-athletes showing up in college with some sort of diagnosable mental illness. Many of them are on medication. I’d say it's a growing problem,” said Joe Owens, associate senior director of Athletics with the University of Dayton.
While sports participation has many benefits, Ikehara explained there is a culture among student-athletes where they feel pressured to seem like they have it all together.
When I asked Ikehara, “Would you say this issue has a lot to do with these student-athletes putting a lot of their identity into the sport?”
She responded,” Absolutely, especially after they experience an injury. A lot of athletes will say that they're at a loss of how to cope, and they don't know who they are without their sport.”
Owens said this can be incredibly detrimental, particularly for incoming freshmen, as many were top players in high school. He said the collegiate level is a much different reality as they likely won’t get the same playing time or may not get to play at all.
Owens explained they’re focusing on breaking the stigma before their athletes’ mental health concerns escalate. In addition to their athletic psychologist training coaches on detecting early warning signs, Owens said they’ve been ramping up suicide prevention seminars. He added they’re now hosting Zoom meetings with incoming freshman athletes' parents about it.
“We actually counsel our student-athletes to look out for each other. What I tell our student-athletes is it is really silly to ignore an injury or mental injury compared to an ankle injury. Because they're just as dangerous,” Owens said.
Ikehara sees a need for local school districts to invest in hiring psychologists that work directly with student-athletes as universities do. Everyone involved say the priority now needs to be normalizing self-care and recovery among all student-athletes.
“It's very helpful, the number of professional and big-time college athletes that have come out and taken steps back from their teams from their sports, and told people, told the world that this is why I'm doing it,” Owens said.
Warning signs include:
- Significant changes in behavior such as an athlete stops taking care of their hygiene
- Drastic changes in eating and sleeping patterns or personality
- Irritability, withdrawal and isolation from peers and activities
How to help:
Ikehara said it’s important to give athletes the tools to develop resilience and help them understand adversity or failure is an opportunity to grow.
“Second, is having supportive athletic environments. Their parents, coaches, and teammates help them to know that they're not alone. In their challenges. And that these experiences or challenges they're facing, are OK to have and to talk about,” Ikehara said.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health, help is available. You can call Montgomery County’s ADAMHS 24/7 Crisis Now Line at 833-580-2255 to be put in touch with a mental health professional.