Gators, New Addition Karcinski Spotlight Mental Health Awareness Month
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 | General, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The statistics offer a deeper understanding of the bigger story, much like a game's box score.
Here is a sampling of numbers from the National Alliance on Mental Illness:
1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year
1 in 20 U.S. adults experience severe mental illness each year
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people aged 10-14
Those are perhaps eye-opening digits for you or your neighbor, but not for Dr. Nicole Karcinski, whom the University Athletic Association hired in January as the athletic department's first full-time mental health and wellness director. Dr. Nicole Karcinski
Karcinski is a veteran psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner with two degrees from UF and a master's degree from the University of North Carolina. She worked in UF's Student Health Psychiatry department for 15 years before joining the UAA's mental health professionals.
Throughout her career, Karcinski has provided mental health care to high school, collegiate, professional and Olympic athletes.
During her time with the university, Karcinski worked with Florida's student-athletes on their mental health. These specialized Gators exist in a high-pressure bubble that can negatively impact mental health if performance is all that matters.
Karcinski is eager to help the Gators care for themselves in her new role. She said the mission is multi-pronged, but at its core is continuing to educate the public on mental health.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
"Creating a culture within our athletic association and awareness that mental health is health,'' she said. "This is a pillar of our well-being and functioning as humans. As athletes, we focus so much on just where their body is and what their body can do to achieve greatness.
"If we put as much effort into mental health and we do our physical health, our performance and well-being would be amazing."
Karcinski has a busy schedule during Mental Health Awareness Month.
She has a podcast that introduces the UAA Mental Health & Wellness department in the introductory episode. Over the next month, lacrosse players Liz Harrison and Brie Catts, golfer Taylor Roberts, Georgia Hoey from lacrosse and Karoline Tuttle from golf will join her show to discuss how they utilized the program's mental health resources.
Graphic: National Alliance on Mental Illness
Meanwhile, Karcinski is just getting started.
She did not expect the phone call when discussions about her new role first started, but after more than a decade working with UF student-athletes outside the UAA, she is energized by the opportunity to work with them on the inside.
"It's curious to me that we're still in this place [as a society] that we're not achieving the best version of ourselves by taking care of our mental health,'' she said. "It has a negative connotation to it. I think we can do better and educate ourselves more about it.
"If we can, as a culture within the athletic association, recognize that we're multi-pronged individuals, and mental health is part of that, I think that would reduce the stigma surrounding mental health."
Her primary message to the Gators she encounters.
"I'm here for you to be the best version of yourself,'' she said.
