What are you doing to Monitor Mental Health? Do you have an easily replicable process? Care to share that with lots of ATs and SMB fans?

Cari Wood joins Todd Sabol and host, Jeremy Jackson, to discuss what this looks like in various AT setting and how you can easily maintain this process.

How is Cari Monitoring Mental Health?

This started with a tragic story of losing an athlete. A 3-sport player that committed suicide without anyone noticing signs or symptoms of something being off.

Cari's late athletes family provided funding for the “Your Life Matters Video”

After this Cari knew something had to be done to help identify mental health struggles.

What steps is Cari taking:

Every other year during Impact and Sway baseline testing Cari speaks to each team about the Monitoring Wellness survey. She does not tell them it is “Monitoring Mental Health”

* Small groups work best* Tell them “this is important to me”* “I want to know how you are doing”* “I am the only one who sees the responses”* Use the Remind App to send out the google form* Have the QR code ready for baseline testing day* Schedule the survey to come out each week to automate the process* Sunday evenings have given her the best response rate

Who is Cari Wood?

* Cari Wood graduated from Eastern Washington University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Sports Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in Education-Physical Education/Health.  * She returned to her home state of Oregon to work as the first Athletic Trainer at Redmond High School in 1994. * She built an athletic training program from scratch and has remained in Redmond ever since.  * Cari served on the NATA Board of Directors from 2012-17 and was President/Director of District 10 concurrently. * She served District 10 as the Secretary and was the President of Oregon Athletic Trainers' Society. * She has had multiple NATA, NWATA, and OATS committee assignments over the years. * Currently, Cari is the chair of the NATA Specialty Awards Committee. * Cari was a recipient of the NATA Outstanding Service Award, is an OATS Hall of Fame member. * The first woman inducted into the NWATA Hall of Fame in 2017.  * She is married to Jon and is incredibly proud of their two children, Bradi (20)and Riley (18).

How have the surveys helped?

Cari helped a soccer coach change the atmosphere of the team by identifying where multiple athletes were reporting negative feelings towards the team. The coach was able to build in more fun and team building activities based on the survey results.

One kid answered all “0”s but did not leave a comment. Cari sought out the athlete but he was absent. The coach contacted him to find out he had been kicked out of his house and having serious family issues. they were able to step in and support him during a very tough spot in his life.

How can you implement these into your system?

* Ask your IT people to help you set this up for your setting* Discuss with your campus admin* Test it out in small groups first* Share your story

Monitoring Mental HealthWhat are you doing to monitor the mental health of your athletes?Is it a repeatable process?Can you automate it?