Assessing and Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Student Athletes - A Case Study of The University of Northern Iowa

My research concerns the mental health of collegiate level student-athletes, whomst national data suggests experienced greater stress and mental strain than non-athletes. My work sets out to confirm whether UNI’s student-athletes are also in line with this trend of higher stress levels by surveying this population, and subsequently to propose solutions for addressing the discrepancy in mental distress levels. I have been studying solutions employed by other universities, both public and private institutions and of varying enrollment size, to meet the mental health needs of their athletics population. I am using this research to consider the different forms a mental health resource could take for our athletics department. With respect to budget and scale, I will use my findings to posit a solution catered to the University of Northern Iowa\u27s specific situation, as well as what the ideal solution would look like if we were not constrained by funding limitations