Katy Harris, athletic trainer, and co-chair of the student mental health committee at Cornell University, spoke to the importance of considering the connections between mental and physical health when treating patients.

“Mental health can cause you to have physical pain, make your stomach upset, make you not sleep and really impact you in a physical way,” said Harris. “We tend to look at issues from a musculoskeletal point of view, but we need to be holistic and ask about athletes’ mental health too, because if your mental health is not good, your physical health is probably also not good.”

When looking at an athlete’s ability to compete, there must be recognition that the mental health of an athlete is just as important as their physical health. Dr. Monika Radloff, who specializes in sport medicine and athletic performance at Cayuga Medical Center, notes that both coaches and players recognizing this connection is a necessity for success.

“I think it is a group effort involving the athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, team physicians, and student health clinic physicians and staff, to recognize and monitor any mental health disorders and to help coordinate and support treatment,” said Radloff.

The prioritization of open conversations and holistic coaching — supporting the development of the athlete as a whole, not just their physical abilities — is key to ending the stigma in sport.

“My biggest advice for coaches is just to really make sure that they’re building those relationships with their athletes, so that there’s that first level of care and love,” said Harris. “The other thing is for coaches to really be vulnerable with your athletes, have those conversations about your own mental health and connect with them.”