{"id":99347,"date":"2022-03-02T13:35:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T19:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=99347"},"modified":"2022-03-02T15:51:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T21:51:54","slug":"john-coumbe-lilley-details-the-mistreatment-athletes-often-receive-after-severe-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/john-coumbe-lilley-details-the-mistreatment-athletes-often-receive-after-severe-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"UIC kinesiologist details \u2018mistreatment\u2019 athletes often receive after severe injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Muir<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Kinesiologist John Coumbe-Lilley spent years observing the care, or lack thereof, that athletes who had experienced severe sports injuries were receiving during their rehabilitation process.<\/p>\n

Surprised by the results he saw, Coumbe-Lilley decided to conduct an official research study to \u201csee if he could prove (himself) wrong.\u201d His research since 2018 confirms his worst concerns.<\/p>\n

Coumbe-Lilley is a clinical professor in kinesiology and nutrition in the applied health sciences department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, his alma mater. He received his Ph.D. in education psychology at the university in 2007.<\/p>\n

Why was the emotional response of athletes following severe sports injury an area you wanted to study?<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Coumbe-Lilley:<\/strong> I noticed through work I had done with different teams at the national level and college athletes that there was a difference in the way that care was provided. I also observed that athletes that were recovering from severe sports injuries, which were going to keep them out for six months or later, seemed to be treated differently and treated less (vigilantly) than athletes who were going to be returning quite soon to their sport. So, I wanted to know if my judgment was accurate and if what I was experiencing was true. That led me to begin the research in 2018.<\/p>\n

What can you share about your research subjects?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got 45 cases \u2014 13 are men and the rest are women. They range from Division I, national teams, college and varsity high school. The injuries range from traumatic brain injury, pelvic fractures, ACLs and ulnar collateral ligament injuries. It\u2019s been many sports as well: soccer, baseball, volleyball, rugby, track and field, and American football.<\/p>\n

What findings have you discovered so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Of the 45 cases, we\u2019ve only got three that we can point to and say that they\u2019ve had positive emotional outcomes as a response to their rehabilitation. We\u2019ve just done a piece where a third of those cases can tie their emotional (suffering) to the mistreatment that they\u2019ve received from coaches and medical professionals. We have several cases of emotional abuse, dehumanization, body shaming, restriction of medical treatment. It\u2019s a (bleep)show.<\/p>\n

Did you find differing treatments or outcomes for male versus female athletes? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t dug deep into this, but one of things that comes out is that the majority of failed surgeries are done by men on women\u2019s bodies. Maybe it\u2019s because there are more male surgeons. But we have a case of a successful recovery where that athlete interviewed surgeons before they operated on her, and she chose a female surgeon because she felt that female surgeons understood a women\u2019s point of view for surgical recovery. I\u2019ve got a case where an athlete was operated on by a man who then admitted to her that he wasn\u2019t best qualified to do it and that she should\u2019ve seen someone else. And that was a professional soccer player. She had five hip surgeries on both hips by the end of her career.<\/p>\n

What have you seen in terms of mental health support for these athletes through their rehabilitation process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the sample that we have, we have 100% of athletes who did not receive a mental health referral of any kind in the beginning. Imagine hearing you\u2019re going to be out six months minimum before you\u2019re cleared to return to play. You would think common sense would say that\u2019s going to be a hard recovery. But all 45 athletes never received any information or any kind of mental health referral just to talk to someone about what\u2019s in front of them. There\u2019s an absence of mental health support for these individuals that will experience several peaks and troughs as they go through the rehab experience.<\/p>\n

Were some of the athletes\u00a0referred, either by you or others around them, and were they able to receive the necessary mental health treatment?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We offered referrals to two participants. Five sought out their (own) therapists. One was directed to a sports psychiatrist later in their rehab process.<\/p>\n

Are you consulting with sports teams to push for increased mental\u00a0health support?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We regularly communicate with athletes and college sports representatives about our work. However, we need to improve our outreach to sports teams. We have connected with practitioners across North America and Europe who asked for materials and program outlines we developed and employed based on this work, so that they could start their own interventions and efforts to address similar issues in their context.<\/p>\n

Where are you hoping to take this research in the future?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our goal is to put it to work to develop programming for athletes and sports medicine providers and develop approaches we can test and validate for enhancing rehab outcomes.<\/p>\n

Alyssa Muir is a sports reporter at Medill from Tampa, Florida. You can follow Alyssa on Twitter at @alyssa_muir21<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Muir Medill Reports Kinesiologist John Coumbe-Lilley spent years observing the care, or lack thereof, that athletes who had experienced severe sports injuries were receiving during their rehabilitation process. Surprised by the results he saw, Coumbe-Lilley decided to conduct an official research study to \u201csee if he could prove (himself) wrong.\u201d His research since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":803,"featured_media":99348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,31,5155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-science","category-sports","category-winter-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nUIC kinesiologist details \u2018mistreatment\u2019 athletes often receive after severe injury - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/john-coumbe-lilley-details-the-mistreatment-athletes-often-receive-after-severe-injury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UIC kinesiologist details \u2018mistreatment\u2019 athletes often receive after severe injury - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Alyssa Muir Medill Reports Kinesiologist John Coumbe-Lilley spent years observing the care, or lack thereof, that athletes who had experienced severe sports injuries were receiving during their rehabilitation process. 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