Interprofessional Team Collaboration for Routine and Emergent Mental Health Concerns Among Collegiate Student-Athletes: A Case Series

Collegiate student-athletes experience an increasing number of mental health concerns. To help address these concerns and provide high quality healthcare for student-athletes, institutions of higher education are being encouraged to create interprofessional healthcare teams that are specifically dedicated to managing mental health. We interviewed three interprofessional healthcare teams who collaborate to manage routine and emergency mental health conditions in collegiate student-athletes. Teams were representative across all three National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) divisions and included athletic trainers, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, dieticians and nutritionists, social workers, nurses, and physician assistants (associates). The interprofessional teams indicated the existing NCAA recommendations helped to solidify members and roles of the mental healthcare team; however they all indicated their teams would benefit from more counselors and psychiatrists. Teams shared different mechanisms for referral and accessing mental health resources on their campuses, which may make on-the-job training for new members of the team an organizational necessity.