What can teams and leagues do to better impact the mental health of their athletes? (2025)

Editor’s Note: This story contains a description of a suicide attempt.

• Part 1: Doctors hope Jarren Duran’s brave admission sparks mental health conversation

By talking publicly about his 2022 suicide attempt, Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran hopes to help kids and athletes battling the same mental health issues that he was.

But the revelation, which became public when the Netflix documentary, “The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox,” was released on Wednesday, could help more than just athletes who are struggling.

So what can coaches and team leaders do to better support these players?

Three doctors who are experts in the field offered suggestions on how to help athletes who are suffering from mental health issues:

Treat mental health like physical health

Among the challenges sports psychiatrists and psychologists face is getting coaches and the athletes themselves to look at mental health issues like an injury instead of a character flaw. Both can be addressed effectively with proper treatment. But while almost every athlete sees a doctor with a knee injury, many hide their mental health struggles.

Dr. Eugene Hong is the chief medical officer for Clemson athletics. He has served on mental health task forces for the NCAA and has been a team doctor for 25 years.

“Mental health in athletes should be as accessible and approachable as ACL injuries,” Hong said. “There’s no stigma attached to having an ACL injury. It’s a tough injury, it’s a shame, but everyone understands that and understands that the athlete is not responsible or needs to fix it themselves, nor is it any weakness on their part. They’ve had an ACL injury and then they need help managing it. Mental health in athletes is a serious issue that should be as accessible and approachable as ACL injury is.”

Training can be critical for coaches, valuable for everyone

Most coaches, front office staff and players could benefit from even simple education. There is training that can help coaches foster a healthy team culture as well as recognize warning signs of an athlete who may have mental health issues.

Dr. Mena Mirhom, the chief well-being officer for Athletes for Hope, said that while there is more comprehensive training available, valuable work can be done in 45 minutes to an hour session. He likens a class Athletes for Hope offers to learning CPR.

“It’s not extensive training. The research tells us that even if someone has 45 minutes to an hour, it’s like CPR. When you do CPR training, you don’t become a cardiologist. You just learn to save a life in a 45-minute training session,” he said. “That’s where we’re investing a lot with Athletes for Hope. We’re not trying to make you professionals. We’re trying to make you aware enough to pick up a sign.”

For coaches and leaders, the sessions are designed to help recognize someone who might be struggling and the most effective way to get that person the necessary help.

“What you go through in that course is ‘What does mental health stuff look like?’ It doesn’t always look the same as we always imagined it to be,” Mirhom said. “It’s not always sadness and crying, especially in men. Sometimes, it looks very different. ... It’ll empower you in how to have the conversation on your level. how to quickly and effectively connect somebody to resources.”

Establish a culture of trust and safety

The culture of each team’s locker room is obviously different and how comfortable or safe a player feels inside it can impact their willingness to open up and address any issues.

Coaches, management and player leaders can set an important tone.

“Either I’m in a place where I can talk to the or I’m in a place where if I say something vulnerable, I’m going to be laughed at or I’m going to be looked at with a little bit of a sideeye,” Mirhom said.

“The coach or the general manager or whoever is setting the culture for the team can vary so much,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s somebody saying ‘I don’t care. Do what you’ve gotta do. Just make sure the person is going to perform. That’s all I care about. I don’t care about all of this touchy-feely stuff.’”

A coach’s understanding and willingness to explore how their methods impact an athlete can be critical.

“It’s not just the athlete’s perception of themselves or maybe the pressure they put on themselves. They don’t perform as well as they want to, but they also receive feedback from the coaches,” Hong said. “Often what a coach inadvertently says, the athlete kind of misinterprets or takes it in a way that affects mental health.

“It’s not intentional, it’s not malicious. That’s where raising awareness will be helpful,” he added. “But I still think there’s opportunities for the ecosystem of an athlete to be more aware that mental health conditions are real and they’re actually, largely treatable and manageable.”

Teammates can be the most valuable part of the ecosystem.

“Teammates have a real important role,” Mirhom said. “Someone that’s going to listen and notice something small and be like ‘Hey man. You good? You sure everything is all right?’ That role is so critical and sometimes nobody can play it but the teammate.”

Hong agreed.

“It’s hugely important. It’s hard to overstate the value there, so often, teammates, colleagues, friends, classmates can be the first to recognize that something may not be right with, an individual athlete,” he said. “It could be something as simple as maybe, ‘Oh gosh, you’re drinking more alcohol than you usually drink,’ or ‘You don’t even seem like yourself.’ It could be any number of things where you don’t seem to be sleeping well.”

Make resources clear and accessible

Whether teams have psychologists and psychiatrists on staff or have an easily identifiable and accessible directory of outside treatment options available (often through players’ unions), it is important that athletes know they have options and where to find them.

It’s important too that they’re the right resources. A performance coach might have a psychology background, but the same person who can help an athlete remain calm ahead of crucial free throws might not be the right person to address depression.

Dr. Tim Wilens is the chief of child and adolescent psychology and former medical director of Mass General Hospital’s sports psychology program.

“Make it easy for people and have a structure where there’s a therapist of some sort, and then often if medicines are needed, a psychiatrist or a team physician with expertise in mental health,” said Wilens, who has treated NFL players.

Prescreening can be valuable too

Most high school athletes need to have a physical before being cleared to play their respective sport.

Mirhom, like many in sports medicine, supports including a mental health screening as part of that process. Even something as simple as a questionnaire could have considerable value.

“Part of what could be checked, the same way is the doc is checking my heart to make sure I’m not going to have a sudden cardiac event, he said, ”you could ask seven or nine questions and check my mental with a couple of these screening questions."

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If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, you are not alone.

Samaritans Statewide Hotline: Call or Text: 1-877-870-HOPE (4673)

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255)Press # 1 if you are a Veteran

The Trevor Helpline: 866-4-U-TREVOR (488-7386) Support designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and young adults