Pac-12 Mental Health Coordinating Unit

The University of Arizona serves as the Pacific Athletic Conference-12 (Pac-12) Mental Health Coordinating Unit (MHCU). The Pac-12 MHCU's aim is to build and test a set of scalable mental health screens for Pac-12 clinicians consistent with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) best practice recommendations across various mental health domains, including but not limited to: anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, substance misuse, alcohol misuse, and eating disorders. The Pac-12 MHCU further aims to help develop policies and procedures to address positive mental health screens in athletes. To advance mental health assessment and research in athletes, the Pac-12 MHCU works closely with Pac-12 universities.

Benefits to participating Pac-12 schools:

• The MHCU measures are online and allow for direct entry by student athletes.
• Surveys are brief, can be texted or emailed, and completed with smartphones or tablets.
• Alerts are personalized to notify clinicians whenever an athlete scores above threshold on a measure.
• Reports are customized for each school's and clinician’s needs.
• Each school has a data coordinator, funded through Pac-12, to assist and facilitate testing of athletes.
• Allows the ability to catch mental health problems earlier, reducing the consequences.
• Guides primary and secondary prevention.
• Clinicians can use individual measures from the MHCU survey as their personal toolbox for follow-ups.
• Athletes choose whether to participate in epidemiology research after completing screens.

Updated: 07/08/22