Study highlights need to improve understanding of an athlete’s mental health issues among sports directors.
Interviews with elite sports directors reveal over-simplified perceptions of mental health and recovery along with beliefs that mental health concerns are an athlete’s individual problem, as reported in Psychology of Sport and Exercise Loughborough University researchers in Loughborough, UK, conducted interviews with 11 elite sports performance directors regarding mental health and elite athletes.
Three themes emerged:
- mental health is viewed like a physical health issue;
- mental health is an individual athlete’s responsibility; and,
- mental health issues are easy to resolve.
Study authors recommend more education on mental health complexities—including the differences between mental illness and physical illness and injury—effective responses toward athletes who disclose mental health concerns, and how recovery is often nonlinear and is subjectively defined.
See also: Mental Health Benefits of Physical Activity
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
