It Takes a Team to Take Care of Collegiate Sports Teams

It Takes a Team to Take Care of Collegiate Sports Teams

ST. LOUIS -At Saint Louis University, an interprofessional wellness team is enhancing the health and well-being of SLU's student-athletes. It has a framework for how others can do the same.

"Promoting athletes' well-being is not a one-person job; it truly takes a team to provide holistic care to athletes," said Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., director of interprofessional education and professor of physical therapy and athletic training at SLU.

Breitbach and a team of experts at SLU recently published their findings in a Special Edition, "Sport Psychology Interventions for Athletes' Performance and Well-Being" in Sports.

Research shows an increase in mental health struggles among the college-age population, and student-athletes are no exception. Mental health issues may include gambling, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, disordered eating, mood disorders, and suicide. Breitbach says overcoming barriers to interprofessional collaboration can enhance student-athlete wellness.

"Teamwork in care, just like on the field or the court, translates to better outcomes," Breitbach said.

The authors suggest that pinpointing and defining the roles of care team members can improve care. They identified role ambiguity, poor communication, differing values, ethical standards, traditional professional hierarchies, and the commitment of stakeholders as barriers to interprofessional collaboration.

Strategies developed to help overcome these barriers include identifying common values of team members and developing a set of team values to inform a shared mental model across the team-investing time in regular team meetings, informal interactions, and structured formal communications. This allows the the team to spot individual and team areas of strength and weaknesses and discuss each team member's potential gaps in training and whose training may fill these gaps.

Interprofessional Education (IPE) at SLU allows students interested in various health professions to take classes with students from other health disciplines. Through joint learning experiences, students become more effective at collaborating with others to create better health outcomes for patients. In the 2023-'24 school year, SLU had 915 students enrolled in IPE courses. Embedded into several academic programs and aligned with six attributes of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum, SLU students can earn both a Concentration and a Minor in Interprofessional Practice.

The Interprofessional Wellness Team working with Billiken Athletics consists of a clinical sports psychology doctoral student, a licensed mental health professional, an athletic trainer, and a sports dietitian. They are centrally located at SLU's O'Loughlin Family Champions Center, a $20 million state-of-the-art facility providing support services for SLU student-athletes. Working together, the Interprofessional Wellness Team also developed a shared safety protocol for athletes, maintained an up-to-date network of campus/community resources, and implemented procedures connecting athletes to those resources.

"The Champions Center, in its first year of operations, has provided so much for our student-athletes," Breitbach said. "In one facility, within SLU's athletic complex, our student-athletes have access to everything they need to succeed, including nutrition, counseling, study spaces, etc. Additionally, many student-athletes are enrolled in IPE courses at SLU, and through the Interprofessional Wellness Team, they get to experience the care they learn about in the classroom."

An athletic trainer, physician, physical therapist, dietitian, sports performance coach, counselor, sports psychologist, and administrator comprise the interprofessional wellness team at SLU. Each brings a particular skill set to the table to best serve the overall well-being of student-athletes at SLU.

"In intercollegiate athletics, we constantly teach the values of a team-based approach to our student-athletes. This approach models the behavior we are teaching our students and allows our professional staff to feel empowered and valued," said Janet Oberle, Ph.D., deputy director of athletics at SLU, who oversees the interprofessional wellness team.

Other authors include Rebecca Steins, Saint Louis University; Michael Ross, Ph.D., Saint Louis University; Erica Ciarlo, Saint Louis University; Elena Melillo, Saint Louis University; and Olivia Brant, Saint Louis University.