Student Athletes

football field. two players in gold and white, run with two others in orange and white, with one cradling football

(Photo courtesy of UVA/opens new window)

NCAA Sport Science Institute: Mental Health Best Practices (opens new window)
From the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) comes this website which contains a synopsis of the four inter-association best practices, as well as downloadable tools for athletics departments and university partners to use in implementing all mental health best practices on their respective campuses. In addition, two publications (listed below) are offered to aid student athlete mental wellness.

Mind, Body and Sport: Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness, 2014 (PDF/2.9 Megabytes)
This comprehensive document is designed to help athletics departments, campus mental health providers, and all sport stakeholders promote and develop effective strategies to understand and support student athlete mental wellness. The personal stories of athletes and coaches who have personally struggled with mental health and substance use issues are also provided.

Inter-Association Consensus Document: Mental Health Best Practices for Understanding and Supporting Student Athlete Mental Wellness, 2020 (PDF/2.4 Megabytes)
Building on the above document, these "Best Practices" are intended to provide guidelines for supporting and promoting student athlete mental health to athletics and sports medicine departments of all sizes and resources. A mental health care checklist, crisis response resources, and mental health screening tools are provided in appendices D through F.

NCAA Student Athlete Well-Being Study, 2021 (PDF/1.4 Megabytes)
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) researchers collaborated with the NCAA Sport Science Institute and the NCAA's Division I, II and III Student Athlete Advisory Committees to design and distribute a survey in the Fall of 2021. The survey examined the experiences and well-being of 9,808 student athletes and is a follow-up to two NCAA student athlete well-being surveys conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2020 respectively. All three surveys were designed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental well-being of student athletes and would come to generate over 70,000 student athlete responses combined.