Clare Shapiro

Period 7
4/13/16
Recognizing the signs
By Timothy Neal
Athletic Management
August/ September 2013, Vol. XXV, No.5
Recognizing the signs is an article about developing procedures that can spot
symptoms and eectively refer treatment for student- athletes mental health issues. It all
began at Georgetown University, where a research project had begun to study the rates
of depression in former collegiate athletes. They hypothesized that when an athlete
retires from their sport, it is almost equivalent to loosing a part of themselves, which can
often culminate into mental health problems. To test their theory, the researchers polled
280 current and former NCAA student- athletes from a wide range of sports. Their
nding surprised them. They found that instead of the former athletes showing greater
rates of depression, it was the current participants who did. The exact rate was seventeen
percent of present- day athletes exhibits signs of depression. A statement released by
NATA recommends that college athletic departments set up specic policies to handle
psychology concerns. When beginning the process of developing a mental health
document the rst step is to get many dierent people involved, so the author
collaborated with members of the school's counseling department, as well as o- campus
mental health professionals. Then the author reached out to the school's division of
student aairs, because a student- athlete is rst and foremost a student. The next step in
the process is putting together policies and resources. These document contain
information such as prevailing mental health issues, stressors, how to refer athletes for
treatmen, and condentiality issues. After developing the documents, they outlined
specic behaviors for coaches to look out for in their athletes. The two most prevalent
mental health disorders in young adults is depression and anxiety. However there are
many others that student- athletes may suer from. The document guidelines explain
some facts about behavior and how they may relate to a certain type of mental illness.
This document also claries that behavior may be singular or multiple in nature, and
range from mild to severe in presentation. The overarching idea is that if the described
behaviors are out of character for the athlete, the federal system should be activated.
Some potential behaviors that could indicate a student- athlete is suering are:
withdrawal from social contact, changes in sleeping and eating habits, decreased interest
in activities, problems concentrating or remembering, frequent complaints of fatigue, loss
of or heightened emotions, deliberate self harm, irritability, drug and alcohol abuse, and

talking about death. Slough these thought are pretty broad there are more consise in the
actual document. The referral system takes into consideration the documents, and also
advises on how to treat the issue. If there is any suspect of mental health issues, the
athletic department should act quickly to nd out if the student needs help. They also
oer counseling because empathetic listening and encouraging the student athlete to
speak openly is strongly recommended. It is also important that the athlete know people
care for them. Although there are student athletes who will refuse counseling for various
reasoning, no athlete should ever be forced. Mental health issues are present among
student- athletes, and they should not be ignored. Instead there needs to be further
investigation of these mental health issues.
Overall I really enjoyed this article. I recognized the symptoms from many classes
on mental disorders and issues. I agree with the author that it is increasingly important to
prioritize searching for more procedure that could lessen the suering of those with
mental health issues. I can see how this system is now imputed into not only this high
school, but also other institutions and medical facilities. It was extremely interesting to
learn all the potential behaviors that could be attributed to mental health issues.
Although we are only in high school, I feel as if they are becoming more prominent at
the younger age groups. This is something that is destructive of our society, and that
must be stopped because it is just plain sad.