Faculty Advisor(s)
Dawn Evans
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Abstract
Athletes Thriving Health, Resilience, and Inspiration for Victory and Empowerment (THRIVE) is an occupational therapy (OT) doctoral capstone project that was created to address increased rates of mental health concerns as well as significant levels of mental health stigma among university athletes (Johnson, 2022). The goals of this capstone project were to educate and train athletes in mental health and wellness to support healthy engagement in occupations, promote self-advocacy with seeking mental health services, and increase athletic department staff comfortability and capability with addressing athlete mental health. OT programs and interventions with this population are mainly in the context of concussion rehabilitation. There is limited to no evidence in OT mental health prevention programming and interventions for athletes of all age groups. This project exhibits the effectiveness of a holistic mental health and wellness program, created through an OT lens, to promote health at various levels of education and training. The project took place at Misericordia University Athletics and involved education sessions for the athletic department staff, mental health training sessions for specific teams, mental and physical health and wellness sessions for the general athlete population, and the development and distribution of three mental health resource manuals for both the athletic department staff and the athletes. Results of the project showed improved mental health and wellness in the areas of anxiety, social participation, stress management, self-advocacy, sleep health, confidence, and occupational balance among the athlete participants. Results also showed increased competence and confidence among the athletic department in their ability to effectively manage athlete mental health concerns. Many participants expressed the need for a program like this and the value that this specific capstone project had on the athletic department to support university athletes on and off the field.
Publication Date
2025
Document Type
Poster
Department
Occupational Therapy
Keywords
occupational therapy (OT), National College Athletic Association (NCAA), mental health, mental health stigma, systematic review, doctoral capstone project, capstone student
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences | Occupational Therapy | Rehabilitation and Therapy
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Yeatman, Grace E., "Athletes Thriving Health, Resilience, and Inspiration for Victory and Empowerment (THRIVE): A University Athletics Mental Health Program" (2025). Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2025. 19.
https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/otd_capstone2025/19