Former Wayne State football player joins athletic staff to work on mental health concerns
Wayne State University is working to address student-athlete concerns about mental health resources with the hiring of Jeff Williams as the assistant athletic director for mental health and wellness.
Williams returns to his alma mater, where he was once a student-athlete himself. During his time as a Warrior, he played football and was a member of the 2011 team that made it to the NCAA Division II title game. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and continued his education at WSU to receive a master's degree in social work. In June, the university found a role they thought he could succeed in.
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"It just felt great to be able to come home and be able to create something where I went to school and where I kind of grew up at," Williams said. "So, in this role as assistant athletic director of mental health and wellness, I'm creating a division where we're able to provide clinical and performance services for the student-athletes, and then also do programming, like wellness groups, and gather resources to support student-athletes."
Since returning to WSU, Williams has worked to make his department's presence known to the different teams on campus by attending practices and other team events. He also emphasized the important role athletic trainers play in helping athletes find mental health resources. Williams explained that they're the "first line of defense" because of how closely they work with players.
Connecting with the student-athletes has been made easier due to his own collegiate career. Some of the faculty and staff from his college days are still working at the university and have been able to help spread the word that one of their former players is back and here to help.
"They've been telling them about my story and how I was a walk-on and how I was a part of the 2011 national championship runner-up team," Williams said. "So, a lot of the athletes have kind of heard about me because of the faculty has been speaking very highly of me, and how that I'm just not a mental health provider coming in, but I'm someone who lived this experience before and now able to come in and help them as someone who knows what it's like to be a Wayne State Warrior."
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While Williams may know what it's like to be in that position, things have changed vastly since he was in college. Mental health resources are more widely available, and attitudes on the subject have improved. Williams credits athletes such as Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, who have openly spoken about their mental health, for the culture shift.
"Back when I was a student-athlete, it was a little taboo," Williams said "You know, you didn't let anyone know that you were receiving mental health services and you kind of had to really reach out to a staff to find out, 'Hey, where do I go to get some services?' "
The only resource available for student-athletes back then, Williams said, was CAPS (Counseling and Psychiatric Services), which is also available for the entire student body. Because CAPS serves such a large demographic, that can make it more difficult for student-athletes, who are often on a tight schedule with classes, practices, games, travel, and other team events, to find an appointment time that works for them.
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Mental health providers who work specifically with student-athletes are able to work around their tight schedules, and patients will be able to continue seeing the same provider as long as they need to.
Student-athletes who are looking to access these services fill out a HIPAA-compliant form, meaning no one will know they are scheduling an appointment — not even coaches. The information from that form goes straight to Williams and then the athlete will be contacted to schedule an appointment either in person or via telehealth, if they prefer that method.
"We just have to continue to raise awareness so that we can put mental health in the forefront and then as it's in the forefront, we'll make sure that we continue to add roles like this around the country and other athletic departments and not just add one, maybe two to three so that we can fully serve the student-athletes," Williams said.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Wayne State football player focusing on program's mental health
