Making News
What is the Depression Center Doing to Help?

New Initiatives Targeting Men and Depression at U-M Depression Center

In our society, male athletes in particular have felt the burden of stigma associated with mental illness, and many tend to avoid seeking treatment. And due to the high-profile but short-term nature of their careers, many retired or injured players find themselves at particular risk for developing a depressive episode when they are no longer able to participate in their sport.

In response, the Depression Center is working on a pilot project with the retired player membership of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), conducting research to identify the need for, and types of, educational and clinical programs most helpful to assist retired NFL players with depression and mental health concerns.

Depression Center staff members, including Associate Director Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D., Daniel Gorenflo, Ph.D. and Eric Hipple, retired Detroit Lions quarterback and Depression Center outreach coordinator (see box), have worked with Andre Collins, executive director of the NFLPA, and members of the Detroit chapter of the NFLPA, to design a brief survey to assess the opinions and beliefs of retired players regarding their own stress responses and mental health issues, as well as their perception of the needs of other retired players.

The survey is currently “in the field” with an excellent response rate of nearly 50 percent, and the Depression Center hopes to have preliminary results available for dissemination and discussion in February. These results will be critical to designing appropriate and helpful programs to address education, awareness, early detection, stigma reduction and peer support around issues of depressive illnesses. Once these programs have been developed and tested with retired NFL players, they can then be modified for use with other groups where depression is currently under-detected and under-treated.