Concerns Facing Mental Health Awareness for Student-Athletes
Mental health awareness for student-athletes stood out to me for my capstone because of the hopelessness I heard from other athletes and the frustrations that were voiced by athletic directors and athletes alike. This catapulted me into the creation of my capstone which focused on the importance of mental health awareness in our student-athletes at Bushnell University. Many students had voiced that they felt pressure to perform so much so that it caused crippling anxiety and fear that if they made a mistake they would instantly be pulled from their sport. This carried over into their lives and made it so they felt as if they were not allowed to show weakness, or voice that they were struggling with something happening in their lives. When faced with depression, anxiety, or other issues that presented themselves instead of getting help the student-athletes would try to ignore it and push the issue to the back of their minds. To the athlete, this was easier than taking on the fear of being seen as weak or feeling the pressure to be perfect. The way I designed this project was based on interactions with some of the teams on campus. I met with these teams three times over the course of this semester. The focus of the meetings was to ensure that they were aware of the many mental health support networks that we had on campus and what they thought could be improved. From these meetings I was able to learn that there are more stereotypes surrounding different teams than most people realize. Having these come to light and be addressed would be a huge stepping stone in helping some of these athletes take the next step in receiving help for their mental health struggles. Some of the teams were difficult to get in contact with or they did not respond because of their busy schedules. In the future, I would like to have a powerful hand like the athletic director possibly step in and have all the coaches and teams participate. The hope would be to have all teams from Bushnell University cooperate. This would make it so that bigger steps could be taken in the future and the topic of mental health awareness among student-athletes be taken more seriously.
COMM 499, Senior Capstone
Doyle Srader
Bucher Room (view livestream here)
11 – 11:30 AM