October 5, 2020

Time Out for Mental Health

The COVID-19 global pandemic has placed health at the forefront of everyday conversations around the world. But when it comes to mental health, open discussions on this topic still carry a lot of stigma in the U.S. and around the world, even though mental health is just as important as physical health.

Basketball All-Stars and mental health advocates Chamique Holdsclaw and Kevin Love joined us for a special MentorTalks episode on October 9, 2020. They each shared their stories on seeking help for their mental health, and discussed the importance of maintaining good mental health and reducing the stigma around seeking help.

Catch up on the event above, or at @InternationalExchangeAlumni on Facebook.

This event was hosted by the U.S. Department of State, as a collaboration between the Offices of Alumni Affairs, Global Health Diplomacy, and Sports Diplomacy.

 

More about our speakers...

Chamique Holdsclaw
Mental Health Advocate; retired Women’s National Basketball Association professional basketball player; Olympic Gold Medalist; and Sports Envoy exchange alumna

Chamique Holdsclaw is a basketball legend and mental health advocate. She is the former number 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft, the all time leading scorer and rebounder in either men’s or women’s basketball at the University of Tennessee, won Gold with the U.S. Women’s basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and was a six-time All Star in the WNBA. In 2018 she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Since retiring from professional basketball in 2010, Chamique has become a mental health advocate and has had her story of living with bipolar disorder featured in the documentary “Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw”. Chamique has also traveled internationally with the State Department, as a Sports Envoy to Senegal in 2012, and has remained engaged in community outreach internationally over the years with the Sports Diplomacy Division in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

 

Kevin Love
NBA champion; Founder, Kevin Love Fund; & Olympic Gold Medalist

Kevin Love is an NBA champion, Olympic gold medalist professional basketball player and mental health advocate. At the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), he led his team to the NCAA’s Final Four and was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2020. Since being drafted to the NBA in 2008, Kevin Love has been named an All Star five times, and was an NBA champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

In 2018, Love wrote publicly about his mental health after a panic attack during a game in an article, “Everyone is Going Through Something” for the online media outlet, the Player’s Tribune. Not long after that, he founded the Kevin Love Fund to give people the tools to prioritize mental health alongside physical health and to destigmatize conversations around mental health and mental illness. He has remained an outspoken advocate and, in September 2020, wrote a follow-up article in the Player’s Tribune, “To Anybody Going Through Something.”