Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
College Football Mental Health Awareness Week
October 04, 2021 03:50 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This week has been designated College Football Mental Health Awareness Week and the Big 12 Conference and West Virginia University athletics are planning a number of social media posts to help increase awareness, according to Adrian Ferrera, athletics' director of clinical & sport psychology.
Ferrera said West Virginia will have a social media push Monday on student-athlete nutrition, and later this week another push will promote TalkSpace, which recently partnered with WVU to provide its students access to thousands of credentialed clinicians servicing more than one million people across the country.
This new service is now currently available to all West Virginia University students for free.
"It's an online counseling platform and another valuable resource that our student-athletes have in addition to our regular counseling services," Ferrera said.
A nationwide survey produced by the NCAA in the spring of 2020 revealed an alarming number of student-athletes were dealing with some sort of mental distress. The survey, which was conducted from April 10 until May 1, showed one-third of the more than 37,000 respondents reporting experiencing some sort of sleep difficulties, and more than a quarter were feeling sadness and a sense of loss.
Additionally, one in 10 student-athletes reported feeling so depressed that it was affecting their ability to function on a daily basis.
Ferrera and Sofia Espana Perez, WVU's clinical and sport behavior health therapist, are currently working with student-athletes on an individual basis in all varsity sports.
"Some student-athletes may struggle with anxiety, depression, transition issues away from home, or experience stress playing at the Division I level while living away from home for the first time in their lives," Ferrera explained. "Sleep (deprivation) is another big issue that comes up with our student-athletes, and we're here to try and help them."
West Virginia University offers its more than 500 student-athletes a variety of mental health and sport psychology related services, including individual and specialized counseling sessions with licensed mental health professionals.
Mountaineer athletics is also one of more than 50 schools nationwide partnering with Hilinski's Hope Foundation (H3H), founded by Mark and Kym Hilinski, to honor the legacy of their son Tyler, a Washington State quarterback who tragically died as a result of a suicide in 2018.
Participating schools have committed to at least one of the following this week: showcasing a lime green ribbon on all players helmets with a No. 3 to honor Tyler and all of those lost and those suffering in silence; encouraging students, parents, alumni and fans to show solidarity in promoting mental health awareness throughout the week; and, all players holding three fingers into the sky for the first play of the third quarter of games played during the weekend of Oct. 9.
You can learn more about West Virginia University's counseling and psychological services by logging on to the Carruth Center for Counseling and Psychological Services website.
Ferrera said West Virginia will have a social media push Monday on student-athlete nutrition, and later this week another push will promote TalkSpace, which recently partnered with WVU to provide its students access to thousands of credentialed clinicians servicing more than one million people across the country.
This new service is now currently available to all West Virginia University students for free.
"It's an online counseling platform and another valuable resource that our student-athletes have in addition to our regular counseling services," Ferrera said. A nationwide survey produced by the NCAA in the spring of 2020 revealed an alarming number of student-athletes were dealing with some sort of mental distress. The survey, which was conducted from April 10 until May 1, showed one-third of the more than 37,000 respondents reporting experiencing some sort of sleep difficulties, and more than a quarter were feeling sadness and a sense of loss.
Additionally, one in 10 student-athletes reported feeling so depressed that it was affecting their ability to function on a daily basis.
Ferrera and Sofia Espana Perez, WVU's clinical and sport behavior health therapist, are currently working with student-athletes on an individual basis in all varsity sports.
"Some student-athletes may struggle with anxiety, depression, transition issues away from home, or experience stress playing at the Division I level while living away from home for the first time in their lives," Ferrera explained. "Sleep (deprivation) is another big issue that comes up with our student-athletes, and we're here to try and help them."
West Virginia University offers its more than 500 student-athletes a variety of mental health and sport psychology related services, including individual and specialized counseling sessions with licensed mental health professionals.
Mountaineer athletics is also one of more than 50 schools nationwide partnering with Hilinski's Hope Foundation (H3H), founded by Mark and Kym Hilinski, to honor the legacy of their son Tyler, a Washington State quarterback who tragically died as a result of a suicide in 2018.
Participating schools have committed to at least one of the following this week: showcasing a lime green ribbon on all players helmets with a No. 3 to honor Tyler and all of those lost and those suffering in silence; encouraging students, parents, alumni and fans to show solidarity in promoting mental health awareness throughout the week; and, all players holding three fingers into the sky for the first play of the third quarter of games played during the weekend of Oct. 9.
You can learn more about West Virginia University's counseling and psychological services by logging on to the Carruth Center for Counseling and Psychological Services website.
"Mental health is important because it doesn't discriminate -- it can happen to anybody, anywhere."
— WVU Sports (@WVUSports) October 4, 2021
We are proud to be a part of the @Big12Conference Mental Health Awareness Week to help #BreaktheStigma. #Big12BreaksTheStigma | #HailWV pic.twitter.com/klDggTvry8
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