8 — Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Fighting the hidden battles
By KELLY HALL
Daily Sports Editor
Garrick
Roemer
was
scared. The 17-year-old wasn’t
comfortable in the back of the
ambulance. He didn’t want to be
there, and on the surface, it didn’t
look like he belonged there either.
His mom, Cathy Radovich,
overheard him nervously asking
the paramedics if his emergency
trip to the hospital was going to
follow him, if people were going to
hear about it.
Outside
that
ambulance,
Roemer seemed to be living out a
reality he had strived for. As a 2012
graduate of Saline High School and
lifelong Michigan fan, he grew up
a hop, skip and a jump away from
Ann Arbor as he ran to an All-
State title in the 400-meter dash.
He committed to Michigan’s track
and field team as a preferred walk-
on, rejecting a partial scholarship
from Michigan State in order to
don the maize and blue. There
are pictures of Roemer dressed in
Michigan apparel from the age of
2 onward, and a scholarship offer
from his rival wasn’t going to sway
him. He came to Ann Arbor to
fulfill his dream.
But you can’t always tell what’s
really going on from the outside
looking in.
On
that
day,
the
future
Michigan track athlete didn’t want
to go to the hospital, didn’t want
to talk about his problems — but
Radovich knew he needed to. The
spring of his senior year of high
school was difficult for Roemer,
so after consulting his therapist,
Radovich called the paramedics,
and Roemer reluctantly got in the
ambulance.
He looked physically healthy,
and
he
wasn’t
sick
in
the
traditional sense. But he had
threatened to hurt himself in front
of people at school, and that was
enough cause for alarm.
When people suffer from a
heart attack or a stroke, they don’t
worry about seeking medical
attention.
But
when
people
need an emergency psychiatric
evaluation, they very rarely seek
the help they need. Sitting in an
ambulance with his life in danger,
Roemer was wondering what
other people would think.
For most athletes, the biggest
battle takes place internally. And
far too often, that struggle goes
unheard.
A 2014 study conducted by
Dr. Daniel Eisenberg and Ph.D.
candidate Sarah Ketchen Lipson
at the University showed that of a
random sample of approximately
7,000 students at nine colleges,
just 30 percent of those with
depression or anxiety sought
mental health services.
For
student-athletes,
the
statistic was even lower. Just 10
percent of student-athletes with
depression or anxiety used mental
health services.
In May 2014, following his
second year at Michigan, Roemer
committed suicide. According to
Radovich, a “perfect storm” of
events had hit her son, including
injury and an isolating redshirt
sophomore year that prevented
him from traveling with his
teammates.
“I think stigma really was a part
of what stopped him from getting
the help he needed, and that’s
kinda why I’m here (talking about
it),” Radovich said. “Whether
you’re an athlete or not, it hovers
over you.”
* * *
Almost two years later, on Jan.
22 of this year, Radovich sat at a
table describing the thoughts she
believed her son may have had
that spring day. The only way the
stigma would go away was if she
talked about it.
Sitting next to her was Will
Heininger, a former Michigan
football player who left his job
in Chicago when he realized
that he wanted to join Athletes
Connected,
a
University
organization
dedicated
to
supporting
student-athlete
mental health and one of the first
programs of its kind.
On that Friday afternoon, the
Athletes
Connected
Advisory
Board — a sort of “think tank”
for current and former student-
athletes, interested community
members,
clinicians
and
psychiatrists to suggest ways to
improve mental health on campus
— met for the second time.
The
Athletes
Connected
initiative
first
formed
when
Eisenberg, an associate professor
in the School of Public Health,
saw a posting for the NCAA
Innovations in Research and
Practice Grant. He learned about
the grant about the same time
as Trish Meyer, the manager for
outreach and education at the
University’s Depression Center,
and the two reached out to Barb
Hansen, one of three athletic
counselors
employed
by
the
Michigan Athletic Department.
In April 2014, the Athletes
Connected initiative received a
$50,000 grant to conduct research
on student-athlete mental health.
Athletes Connected was born as a
partnership between the School of
Public Health, Depression Center
and Athletic Department, with
the major goals being to reduce
the stigma of mental health
issues, promote coping skills and
encourage
help-seeking.
The
group moved quickly, conducting
student-athlete
and
athletic
trainer focus groups over the
summer.
Throughout
the
2014-15
school year, Athletes Connected
presented
to
every
athletic
team and its coaching staff, and
provided
biweekly
75-minute
support groups with a clinical
social worker for student-athletes
who wanted to listen or share their
experiences dealing with stress.
Athletes Connected first told
the coaches about the initiative in
September 2014, and then checked
back in to update them with
results in May 2015.
Next, they opened up the floor
for questions.
Which coach put his hand in
the air first? Michigan football
coach Jim Harbaugh.
“He started asking questions
and then other coaches got
involved,” Meyer said. “It was
really, really encouraging and
heartening because they care so
much for their student-athletes
and they want to know that there’s
a system in place that going to
support them in that way.”
* * *
Michigan
men’s
basketball
coach John Beilein has seen a lot
over his 40 years of coaching.
Like Harbaugh, he was an active
participant during the Athletes
Connected presentation, and for
good reason.
“Over
my
(career),
I’ve
probably had four or five kids with
depression,” Beilein said. “During
that time, I was virtually helpless
as a coach. I would talk to them and
there wasn’t anything happening.
They needed clinical help. That’s
why this is so important.”
He’s a strong believer in the
power
that
mindfulness
can
bring to the court and even cites
a time that Jordan Morgan, a
former Michigan captain, added
meditation
to
his
game-day
routine to alleviate any nerves
about free-throw shooting.
Morgan, a subpar foul shooter
who made 56.5 percent of his
free throws in his career, made
seven of eight shots in a 2014
NCAA Tournament game against
Texas. Beilein credits the standout
performance to the fact that
Morgan happened to mediate
three times that day, focusing on
seeing himself make foul shots.
It’s not uncommon for seasoned
coaches to get stuck in their ways.
Beilein has run the same offense
his entire career, but he readily
admits that his viewpoints on
mental health have changed over
time, especially as he started to
grasp what was really at stake
with his athletes.
“There are so many things going
on with these kids; mental health
and their mental development is
huge for them,” Beilein said. “I’ve
seen
it
over
these years. I
wish I knew
more about it
when I was a
younger coach.
I
would
just
blame it maybe
on, ‘Oh he’s not
tough enough,’
or, ‘He doesn’t
have
the
ice
water in his veins to play.’
“That’s all he needed, was
someone to talk to.”
* * *
Back in his playing days,
Heininger decided to talk to
someone, and it changed his life.
According to a video featuring
Heininger
on
the
Athletes
Connected website — the same
video Athletes Connected shows
every Michigan athlete — he
started “hating himself and his
life” and had “all the classic
symptoms
of
depression,
but
didn’t know what it was” during
his sophomore year of college.
As an Ann Arbor native who
attended Pioneer High School,
which
sits
kitty-corner
to
Michigan Stadium, he dreamed of
playing football at Michigan. He
had no idea why he was feeling the
way he was.
Finally, an athletic trainer
noticed he was in pain and set
him up with Barb Hansen, the
Michigan
athletic
counselor
now
involved
with
Athletes
Connected.
They
worked
on
coping techniques, highlighted
by the video, and he opened up
and stopped hiding his feelings.
Ultimately, he recovered from
depression and became a “better
student, player and person.”
Now, Heininger is 27 and
teaches new athletes the same
coping techniques Hansen taught
him. Athletes Connected is hoping
its presentations help student-
athletes realize why they feel
the way they do so they don’t get
caught in the dark like he once did.
“In a cool way, just knowing
— like I didn’t even know what
depression was, right? I had no
idea what had happened to me,”
Heininger said. “But I’ve had a
number of freshmen now, who
are like, ‘Yeah, I get it. If there’s
something off with my mood, then
I can do something about it, just
like if there’s something off with my
knee, I can do something with it.’ ”
Heininger often makes that
analogy, that, as an athlete, if
there’s something wrong with
your body, you take care of it
immediately. He wants every
athlete to know that issues with
mental
health
can be handled
in
the
same
fashion.
That’s why,
after two years
of working a
finance
job
in
Chicago,
Heininger
decided
to
come home to
Ann Arbor. When he received the
call asking if he would like to come
back and work with his former
counselor as well as Eisenberg and
Meyer, he experienced a moment
of “serendipity.”
“It was like, what do I want to
spend my days doing, like what
matters to me?” Heininger said.
“And that was during the time that
I was realizing how critical mental
health is and its impact on society.”
Heininger may have left his job,
but he found his calling.
* * *
When Jaimie Phelan first saw
e-mails and fliers about the new
Athletes Connected meetings, she
was instantly curious. The junior
cross country and track athlete
didn’t say anything the first few
times she went, but not too long
after hearing others open up, she
did, too.
She found out that most other
athletes felt the same pressures
she did.
“At a young age, a lot of athletes
are taught to tough things out and
fight through the pain,” Phelan
said. “For our everyday life and
for our own mental health, it’s not
always the best approach to tough
things out, and I think a lot of us
struggle with that, too, to be able
to take a step back and say, ‘All
right, I need to take a day off,’ or
‘All right, I need to rest for a bit for
my mental health if I’m mentally
drained.’ It’s like the same as a
physical injury.”
She felt the same sense of
belonging when she first saw
the initial Athletes Connected
presentations.
Athletes
Connected always shows the
same two videos, one featuring
Heininger and the techniques
he used to overcome depression,
and one featuring Kally Fayhee,
a former Michigan swimmer who
overcame an eating disorder.
“That hit a lot of us hard, just
being able to hear someone else’s
story and have them share and be
a part of all of us, too, that gave a
powerful message,” Phelan said.
“It helped me open up more,
and I wanted to go to Athletes
Connected to help deal with any
stressors that came on.”
After the presentations, every
athlete took a survey, and 99
percent indicated that the videos
were relevant to either themselves
or their teammates.
More stunningly, 63 percent
of student-athletes reported that
“emotional or mental health issues”
had affected their performance
in the past four weeks. That
means that more than half of
student-athletes realize they’re
experiencing emotional distress.
But if more than half of the
student-athlete
population
is
affected by emotional issues on
a regular basis, then Athletes
Connected has a problem. Though
the organization is still conducting
research on student-athletes, the
attendance at its biweekly support
groups has dipped.
In the first meeting of 2016, only
one student-athlete showed up.
“We keep trying to find the
magic spot,” Hansen said. “I
think it’s a combination of things,
why the attendance is so low.
I think part of it is always that
time crunch. There just isn’t that
perfect ideal time. … I think there’s
still, certainly for some people,
that fear, that stigma of, ‘I don’t
want to go and tell all my business
or worry what people might think
of me.’
“But at the same time, feedback
is really consistent that they value
hearing
from
other
students
in other sports, not just their
teammates, that it’s an opportunity
to get together with other people
who are maybe experiencing some
of the same challenges.”
Phelan — one of the few
athletes who has taken advantage
of the biweekly meetings —
wholeheartedly
agrees.
The
students care about the program,
even if they can’t always find time
for it. This year, they decided
that Athletes Connected would
be the beneficiary of the athletes’
annual Mock Rock charity event
on Feb. 23.
“I think everyone that I’ve
talked to who has been to Athletes
Connected, when they’ve left,
they’ve all said that it’s been
beneficial,” she said. “It’s just the
fact that they’re trying to get more
people to go if they want to, and
they don’t have to be clinically
diagnosed, just go and sit, listen,
and you never know how much it
can help you.”
* * *
When you first walk in to
Barb Hansen’s office, you see a
few words scrawled in dry-erase
marker on her board. “Just a cold,
dark night on Mt. Everest.”
At first glance, the words could
mean anything. But you soon find
out the words are applicable to
nearly anyone who has taken on
responsibility.
In March 2015, Dr. Alicia Crum
gave a speech at the Depression
on
College
Campuses
Conference
hosted by the
University,
Crum
told
a
story about one
especially late
night working on her thesis, in
which a colleague of hers consoled
her by using that same phrase.
Hansen took note.
“When people climb Mount
Everest, what do they expect?”
Hansen said as she recounted
Crum’s story. “They’re expecting
it to be cold and miserable and
harder than hell. … ‘I’ve chosen
these things. Did I expect it to be
without stress?’ Really reframing
stress as, ‘You know, we choose
these things and we’ll manage and
we’ll get through.’ ”
The quote has worked for some
of her student-athletes, allowing
them to modify their view of stress
to fit a healthier standpoint. It has
stayed on the board since.
But it’s also applicable to college
students
everywhere.
Though
Athletes Connected is focused
first on helping student-athletes,
everyone on the team makes it
clear that they fully intend on
rolling it out to the general college
population. As the de facto pioneer
in studying student-athlete mental
health on this grand of a scale,
Athletes Connected wants to
make sure they get it right first.
“Because it’s a collaboration
between the Depression Center,
Public Health and Athletics, we
are able to use the momentum
of this — which is specifically
student-athlete mental health —
to spill over to the rest of campus,
high schools around the country,”
Heininger said. “One of the things
I’m most proud of in the past year
is all of the interest from other
colleges and universities.”
Added Eisenberg: “As a public
health person, I’ve always been
interested in having a wide impact
on a large number of people.
While I think the student-athlete
population at Michigan is an
important population, it’s still only
900 people, which is tiny compared
to the whole U of M community.”
In the past year, Michigan club
sports, ROTC and the marching
band have reached out to Athletes
Connected, seeking information
on how to improve their students’
mental health.
“I would hope that there will
be
really
useful
information
that generalizes to the college
population,” Hansen said. “That’s
my hope, because even if you think
about the larger college population,
there’s other schools and groups
that are also performance-based. I
think students across campus feel
that pressure to do really well and
to compete.”
* * *
There
are
three
athletic
counselors at Michigan. All three
have packed schedules.
According to Hansen, it’s a rarity
to have three counselors working
just for an athletic department.
But each counselor’s workload
indicates that it’s a necessity.
After
Athletes
Connected
showed
the
student-athletes
the videos featuring Heininger
and Fayhee, 40 indicated on
the
post-presentation
survey
that they would like to make
an
appointment
with
an
athletic counselor to address
“immediate concerns.”
If 40 students realized they
wanted help after watching a few
videos, then it’s not hard to imagine
the
impact
programs
like
Athletes
Connected
could
have
on
campuses
across
the
country.
“A lot of schools have great
facilities and a lot of schools will
give athletes a lot of gear, and
‘Woo-hoo, it’s great,’ ” Heininger
said. “But what about developing
them as a person, what about if
they’re not going to go pro?”
And that’s why Radovich is
involved in Athletes Connected.
Last year, all of the donations to
the Garrick P. Roemer Memorial
Fund went to the program. But
more importantly than that, she’s
talking about what happened to
Garrick so other people know
what they’re up against.
The
stigma
surrounding
depression and anxiety may be
hard to shake — especially for
athletes — but this community is
taking its best shot.
“If it just helps one other person
… I think that even if Athletes
Connected
would
have
been
here, he may still not be with us,”
Radovich said. “But if it would
have prevented it, I’ve got to do it.
We have to try. We have to try to
help other people.”
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
A recent study found that just 10 percent of student-athletes suffering from depression and anxiety seek help.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Athletes Connected seeks to remove the stigma from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
“Whether
you’re an athlete
or not, it hovers
over you.”
“We have to try to
help other people.”