Higgins | Penn Athletics should follow Michigan`s lead, work harder to address athletes` mental health

Being a student-athlete is hard. Plain and simple.

And when it comes to mental health, student-athletes are not necessarily more at risk than their peers. Research done at the University of Washington by Dr. Ashmin Rao has shown that incidence rates of anxiety and depression tend to be lower among student-athletes than non-athletes.

“Athletes actually have a ton of social support,” he said. “They have a lot of resources, trainers, coaches and people who keep their eyes on them at all times. So they’re a more monitored group.”.....

......Success in athletics, however, hinges just as much on mental wellness as it does physical fitness. The problem is that identifying when an athlete is out of shape is easy, but telling when something is amiss with an athlete’s mental health is not.

   ...more

Bethany`s Notes: Another great example of colleges stepping up and helping their student athletes. Every college can probably do more but how do athletes find time to practice the mental skills as well as the physical? Coaches need to make mental training a priority as well as the physical training.