Mental Wellness Is Part of Performance Model

What New Mental Health Support Systems Mean for Strength & Conditioning Professionals

Across major professional leagues and organizations, mental health support is becoming more formal, visible, and integrated into modern sports and human performance settings. Learn what that shift means for your role, including how to recognize concerns, respond appropriately, and refer to the right support.

Important: If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, immediately call emergency services or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. and Canada.

The New Mental Health Support Landscap

The NFL made headlines on March 31, 2026, when owners approved mandatory full-time mental health clinician staffing across all 32 teams. That change expanded the league’s 2019 clinician requirement, which had already brought part-time behavioral health support into the club environment. It also underscores a larger reality: mental health support has been moving deeper into performance systems for years.

Other organizations have taken action through staffing, standardization, and expanding access. Since 2024, the NCAA has tightened expectations through updated Mental Health Best Practices and Division I attestation. Under Mind Health, the NBA and WNBA pair clinical care with mental performance support. Effective January 2026, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) broadened care with sessions available within 48 hours, immediate crisis support, and support in more than 300 languages. In tactical settings, the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) system defines mental readiness as one of its five domains of human performance.

Your Role in Supporting Mental Wellness

For strength and conditioning professionals, your role is not to diagnose or treat mental health concerns. Instead, it’s to recognize signs and symptoms that may need attention, offer support within scope, and collaborate with allied health professionals when appropriate. That starts with a simple framework: recognize, respond, and refer.

The guidance below draws on NSCA mental wellness resources, including a 2025 NSCA Coach article introducing the REACT framework: Respond, Evaluate, Act, Connect, and Track.

Recognize 

You may notice something before an athlete, client, or colleague says they’re struggling. Recognition often starts with small changes you can see in the training environment.

• • Read Daily Signals: Effort, attendance, recovery, communication, sleep, and food-related comments can all offer early clues.
  • Compare to Baseline: Ask what looks different from that person’s usual effort, mood, responsiveness, recovery, or interaction over time.
  • Determine the Level of Concern: Banter and performance frustration are common, but repeated withdrawal, shutdown, visible overwhelm, or concerning food talk deserve a closer look. Any sign of an emergent threat escalates the priority immediately.
  • Use Existing Monitoring Tools: Readiness questionnaires, RPE, written feedback, compliance, and coaching notes can help identify patterns and prompt a check-in.

NCAA data reinforces why this matters. In its 2022–23 Health and Wellness Study of more than 23,000 student-athletes, 44% of women’s sports participants reported feeling overwhelmed, and 35% reported feeling mentally exhausted. Only 40% of women’s sports participants and 54% of men’s sports participants said they would feel comfortable talking to coaches about mental health issues.

For a broader refresher on common concerns and stress versus distress, revisit our article, “7 Tips for Navigating Mental Health as a Strength and Conditioning Professional."

Respond 

You don’t need the perfect words to respond well. What matters most is staying calm, listening closely, and matching your response to the level of concern.

• • Start Calm and Direct: A simple response like “I’m glad you told me” or “That sounds difficult” can keep the moment grounded.
  • Ask, Then Listen: Use open-ended questions, keep them simple, and let the other person talk without rushing to fill the silence.
  • Match the Response to the Moment: A passing complaint may need a check-in, while a more serious concern may need privacy, immediate support, or a faster next step. An emergent threat cannot wait until after the session.
  • Avoid Common Missteps: Don’t joke it away, minimize things, press for details you don’t need, or jump into solutions too quickly.

Coaches are already carrying more of these conversations. In a 2023 NCAA Coach Well-Being Study of more than 6,000 head and assistant coaches, more than 80% said they now spend more time discussing mental health with student-athletes. Among head coaches, 40% also reported feeling mentally exhausted on a near-constant basis.

A small 2018 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR) found that 61% of accredited strength and conditioning coaches across the United Kingdom, U.S., and Australia perceived additional psychology-oriented responsibilities as part of their role.

Refer

Referral is part of the job, not a sign that you failed to help. The goal is to connect the person to the right support quickly, clearly, and with as little friction as possible.

• • Know Your Referral Path: Be clear on who handles crises, mental health concerns, performance concerns, eating concerns, and medical or clearance issues in your setting. That may include a school or campus counselor, psychologist or local licensed clinician, sport psychologist or cognitive performance specialist, registered dietitian, athletic trainer, physician, or crisis line.
  • Make the Next Step Easier: Make the introduction, walk the person there, or stay with them instead of offering a vague suggestion and hoping they follow through.
  • Follow the Process: Protect privacy, involve the right professionals, and document or escalate when your setting requires it.

Strong referral systems are built before they’re needed. Not every setting has an on-site clinician or formal support team, but newer support models are making referrals clearer through better pathways and faster access to outside care.

Better Support Systems, Better Performance

What’s changing in mental wellness at the highest levels of sport is making the standard clearer for everyone else. In strength and conditioning, better support systems help protect performance by improving training, recovery, and communication. Each May, Mental Health Awareness Month is a useful reminder to review your process, refresh your contacts, and stay current on best practices. Being ready to recognize concerns, respond well, and connect people to support helps keep your setting safe and effective.

Explore NSCA Mental Wellness Resources

The NSCA articles, collections, and videos below are free to access. Pre-approved home studies from third-party providers are also available for purchase.