The NBA is doing what it can to ensure its players are staying healthy mentally.
The league sent out a memo to all 30 teams with new guidelines that must be followed starting this season as part of its mental health initiative, according to The Athletic.
Per the reported memo, all NBA teams must adhere to the following guidelines:
- Each team must have at least one licensed mental health professional who is available to players on a voluntary basis. The professional or professionals must have "experience in assessing and treating clinical mental health issues."
- Every team must tab a licensed psychiatrist on call to help with any mental health concerns.
- A plan for possible "mental health emergencies" must be written out for every team.
- Every team much attend a health and wellness meeting in Chicago in September.
- Procedures must be put in place for communicating to players and team staff the team’s practices with mental health, and that all matters will remain private.
Players such as Kevin Love and Keyon Dooling have written pieces for The Players' Tribune, addressing their personal struggles with mental health and have tried to break the negative stigmas.
Kyle Lowry, Royce White, and DeMar DeRozan also have spoken out about mental health and detailed their personal experiences.
Commissioner Adam Silver addressed concerns around players' mental health in March while at the Sloan Conference in Boston.
"When I meet with (NBA players), what surprises me is that they’re truly unhappy,’’ Silver said (via ESPN). “A lot of these young men are generally unhappy."
