Mental and Behavioral Health
In 2017, Brigham Young University Provo quarterback Tanner Mangum posted on Instagram about his battles with anxiety and depression revealing he sought therapy and took daily antidepressants, a shocking admission for a leader in a sport built around physical and mental toughness. The post went viral, and Mangum became known for his mental health advocacy, detailing his struggles and successes to ESPN, CBS and USA Today. In an interview with Idaho Statesman, he said, “I knew there was a stigma surrounding mental health, especially around athletics, especially around males. “So I felt like with the platform football had given me, I could be an advocate and help try to erase that stigma that surrounds mental health – to let people know that it’s OK to get help.
Northwestern University student Sky Patterson resigned from her position as the Associated Student Government president with some words of advice to her peers and the administration about mental health and wellness. In a resignation letter, Patterson said she resigned to focus on hre health and academics. “I am resigning today to take care of my own wellbeing, to focus on my work and education, and to give myself the freedom to explore my passions outside of Northwestern,” Patterson wrote. In the letter, Patterson wrote that too often students sacrifice their own well-being for their organization and that student leaders should set the example and establish wellbeing as a priority. She added that her resignation should signal to the administration that it needs to take students’ mental health more seriously. “So many students have died since I’ve arrived here,” Patterson wrote. “Northwestern needs to do better and support each and every student who is in need.”
A study on leaves of absence at Ivy League colleges released in December gave Harvard‘s procedures a D- grade, critiquing policies that mandate a minimum length for leaves and set a strict deadline for applications to return. The study claims the colleges are forcing students to leave campus against their will and without medical justification to protect the schools from legal liability and bad press. Cornell tied with harvard for the third lowest grade overall. Researchers at the Ruderman Family Foundation, a disability rights advocacy group chose to study Ivy League schools because “they represent the most elite institutions of higher education,” according to the study. A press release sent alongside the Foundation’s findings concluded all eight Ivies “fail students with mental illness.” Authors wrote, “Leave-of-absence policies, as they are currently being implemented, are exacerbating the college mental-health crisis.”
A new study of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds the university’s Division I athletes report a level of mental well-being far above their non-athlete classmates. That’s somewhat of a surprise to Traci Snedden, the UW-Madison professor of nursing who led the study, which was published Wednesday by the American Journal of Health Promotion. Previous research examining smaller groups of international, elite or college athletes had offered mixed results on athlete mental health.
In the wake of student death by suicide last semester, Rochester Institute of Technology announced the formation of a University Task Force on Student Mental Health and Well-Being. “It’s a task force for student mental health,” Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Sandra Johnson explained. “The idea underscores our approach to health and wellness as a holistic process.” The task force will examine the programs and services RIT currently has in place, and make recommendations on behalf of the student body to explain how things can be made better or areas where there are potential gaps.