National statistics show that the number of student-athletes who struggle with mental health is comparable to the general student population. Even so, only 10% of college athletes who have mental health conditions seek help, according to the nonprofit Athletes for Hope.
At Colgate, the Office of Counseling and Psychological Services has teamed up with the athletics staff to normalize and reduce any stigma associated with mental health care.
“Athletes struggle historically to utilize these services,” says Steve Chouinard, senior associate athletics director for health and performance. “There has been an ‘athletes are tougher’ [attitude] that you can battle through anything, from [a hurt] ankle to a mental health issue.” Chouinard has been collaborating with counseling staff members Dawn LaFrance, Christian Beck, and Christy Reed.
For the past five years, Beck has hosted satellite hours at Reid Athletic Center. Students can sign up for a meeting with him or just drop in for casual conversation. In the beginning, Beck wasn’t seeing a lot of faces come through his door, but “now there’s plenty of traffic, so that tells me that there was a need and we just had to make it more accessible,” says LaFrance, assistant vice president of counseling and psychological services.
Beck’s clinical interest is in sports performance anxiety, and he’s also been an athlete himself, so “I’m able to understand their timelines, their commitments with lifts, practice, traveling — all that they’re juggling.”
“The work we’ve been doing on Wednesdays is invaluable, and the conversations that occur after are sometimes even more valuable.”
Steve Chouinard, senior associate athletics director for health and performance
The counselors also have Wellness Wednesdays for the coaches and athletics administrators, leading seminars, workshops, or presentations on various health and wellness topics. Sometimes, they’ll enlist the help of other Colgate experts — for example, Dr. Ellen Larson ’94 (director of Student Health Services) and professors Krista Ingram (biology) and Lauren Philbrook (psychology) came to talk to the group about the importance of good sleep habits.
“The work we’ve been doing on Wednesdays is invaluable, and the conversations that occur after are sometimes even more valuable,” Chouinard says. “I know, for a fact, that a bunch of coaches feel a lot better having gone through it.”
He says that this training is “not dissimilar to teaching a coach how to do CPR. They can be a really important resource for a student in crisis.” LaFrance adds that they’re giving coaches some skills, but also helping them know when it’s time to refer the students to a counselor.
One assessment measure the athletics staff has implemented is on the survey student-athletes complete before their workouts. The eight questions ask about the student-athlete’s current status and condition, but there are two questions related to mental health. By combining these responses with their personal knowledge of student-athletes, athletic trainers and strength coaches can have a sense of when to check in with student-athletes or guide them toward other resources. Sometimes they’ll refer a student to counseling, but often the conversation can end with the student just being grateful someone is looking out for them.
For an additional safety net, student wellness advocates who are volunteers on each athletic team are trained by counselors to offer peer-to-peer support. “If you don’t want to talk to a coach or a counselor, but you want a resource on campus, they’re well versed,” Chouinard says.
This multipronged approach is just one part of the University’s integrated health and wellness programming, where staff members from various areas come together to keep students safe and healthy. “We’re learning more and more about how the brain and body work together,” LaFrance says, “so we can’t just involve one area without it all.”