Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Dr. Jon Glass

In this episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm, Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm speaks with Dr. Jon Glass, a Clinical Psychologist with Northshore Psychological Associates.

Dr. Glass discusses the benefits of high school sports participation on mental health, resilience, and emotional balance, as well as addressing the importance of proper management by parents and coaches to maximize these benefits and avoid potential harm. He also explores the effects of social media, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, differences between boys and girls in sports, and offers advice on supporting injured athletes.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, reach out to us on our website.

Publication number QI-121925-GK

Transcript

Welcome to "Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights," the podcast that delves into the captivating intersection of innovation, science, compassion, and care. 

In each episode, Quality Insights’ Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm will have the privilege of engaging with leading experts across diverse fields, including dieticians, pharmacists, and brave patients navigating their own healthcare journeys. 

Our mission is to bring you the best healthcare insights, drawing from the expertise of professionals across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the nation.

Subscribe now, and together, we can take healthcare by storm.

 Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm. I am Dr. Jean Storm, the medical Director of Quality Insights, and our guest today is Dr. Jon Glass. He is a repeat guest. He is a neuropsychologist whose work spans a wide range of mental health and neurological conditions. Dr.

Glass. Specializes in the assessment and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, traumatic brain injuries, concussions, dementia, insomnia, and other neurological challenges. His approach is truly holistic, drawing on his training as a counseling psychologist and his extensive experience in neuropsychology, rehabilitation, psychology, and psychopharmacology.

To support both patients and families. Dr. Glass holds a PhD in counseling psychology from Gannon University and completed his training at the Erie Psychological Consortium and North Shore Psychological Associates. Along the way, he also earned a Bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, a master's in education from Edinburgh University, and a master's in Clinical Psycho-Pharmacology from Fairley Dickinson University.

He has lots of experience and expertise. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Glass has presented at state and national conventions, and he is an active member of both the American Psychological Association and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. He currently consults at several hospitals and long-term care facilities.

So he brings his expertise to patients across different stages of care. So today we're gonna be shifting our focus from our last conversation, and we're going to be building a con on a conversation that I had with two volleyball coaches around the impact that participating in. Sports in high school has on mental health of those athletes in high school as well as the impact that it has on their future mental health as adults.

So I am very excited to get into this conversation. Dr. Glass Jon, thank you very much for joining us again.  Thank you for the wonderful introduction, Dr. Storm, as well as the invite to come back and talk about something that's quite a bit different than our last conversation. Yes, I agree. So let's just start.

What drew you to become a neuropsychologist and what do you find most meaningful about working with young people and mental health? That's a great question. You know, originally  I got into psychology thinking I would work primarily with mental health and mental health you know, problems. But  the, the more I learned about the brain, the more I realized that unfortunately, mental health problems aren't really treated as brain problems, and they really are.

So I wanted to focus on how the brain operates under normal and abnormal circumstances and how that affects mood, behavior and cognition.  And so that real. Fits well with neuropsychology. Yeah. You know  we're talking about sports participation today. So in your work, how do you see sports participation helping high school students manage stress, be more resilient, build confidence, and stay emotionally balanced.

Yeah, that, that's a great question. 'cause really, sometimes when I talk to some of my athletes, I don't know how they do it.   They really manage very busy schedules and are able to  perform in their sports and in their academics and, and personal lives. you know, I, I think that, their drive to do that requires resilience.

and if they don't have it, when they start  as young athletes they, kind of develop it.  And a along those lines, they also learn some self-efficacy, which boosts their self-esteem. Yeah. And I, I think it's a really interesting thing. And we're gonna talk about social media in, in a little bit  but.

I am really interested in, building resilience and just in my, in what I've been  watching in my own, my own daughter and participate in volleyball. It seems like there's a lot of, I don't wanna say a lot, but there's some crying. Some of the athletes are crying during games and they become frustrated or for whatever reason, but then as the athletes progress, they seem to have less of those.

Kind of emotional outbursts and not that they're bad or good but I'm very interested in learning from you what your perspective is  as how being part of a team is going to influence a young person's ability to build resilience, connect with others, and feel a sense of belonging. And, And maybe those are three different areas, perhaps.

Yeah, I think they are really very different areas  and it's important to keep in mind that as great as sports can be, they can be pretty damaging if they're not managed properly. And that's where I really think that we need to look at  parents and coaches and make sure that they create an environment that is.

 You know, building  on all these positives that we're talking about. And, you know, it's kinda like you mentioned social media. Social media can be great in a lot of ways, but it can also be really damaging.  And we need to be cognizant of, you know, both sides of that coin.   Well even the, the idea of competition, the idea of competition is great. It pushes us, us to be our best selves.  But it can have really damaging effects if it's causing too much stress and, you know, a little bit.

Crying in sports or maybe even at work isn't always bad, but it's  what do we do with that? What's that? Tell us about the situation about ourselves and how do we use that to become the individual we wanna be? Yeah, I'm really curious. You say like, a little bit of crying isn't bad and I think what I have heard you know, there's no, you've heard there's no crying in baseball or there's, you know, and I've heard there's no crying in volleyball and you know, it's, I think it's an interesting perspective to say  it's a little bit as, okay.

What advice would you give to coaches if they have  a few. Athletes who do have some crying during the game or wherever. You know, the reason they say there's no crying in baseball is because there was crying in baseball. You know, like that. That came up for a reason, and I think it's important because, crying shows a sense of emotional awareness.

There's something going on and I don't like, it doesn't feel good. So a good coach, what I would recommend is that, that they give that person  a chance to talk about what was going on, what were you feeling, how did that affect your play, how did that affect your interaction with your teammates, with the other team?

 And what are you gonna do with that? How can you build on that rather than just saying it doesn't exist and you're not allowed to talk about it? Do you think coaches on the whole have the capacity to do that, to address those emotions with the players? No. Largely they don't.  You know, really, but what they can do is, you know, coaches  again  I think that coaches have an ability to form positive relationships with their players.

And if they use that. They can kind of say, Hey, what's up? You know  is this something you'd wanna talk to your parents about?  Do you need a sports psychologist?  And even that, you know  the need I kind of put in quotes. Would you like to talk to a sports psychologist? The vast majority of my athletes that get referred to me, they get referred for performance stuff and 99% of the time underlying that is some difficulty with anxiety, with low self-esteem, with concerns about failure  and that is really what's impeding the person's performance.

It's not a skills thing. To answer your question about coaches, I think the coach's role is to let them know that, the idea isn't to just stop crying. The idea is how do you take that emotion and make it a tool to benefit you? Okay. So you get a lot of referrals for performance. Is it like that, that maybe the coaches know that the athlete can perform better and they're getting in their own way?

 Is that. Yeah, that  typically what the, you know, my common referral from coaches is that the patient, or I'm sorry, the athlete does great in practice, but then  come game time or, competition time, they really just don't perform up to their  expectations. Gotcha.  You know, I'll see those folks.

And like I said, a lot of times  the athlete comes in thinking I'm gonna help them with specific skills. I'm not a coach.  they can learn that from their coach.  What I look at, or the mental and emotional things that impede their ability to use skills they already have.

Okay, so social media  I became really interested in this again, watching a volleyball game on a Saturday, and I just was struck by how engaged all the athletes were in just playing the game. And, you know, Saturday morning, and they weren't on TikTok, they weren't on Instagram, they weren't on Snapchat they were just, really engaged in the game.

And I was like, this is really. It's a really great thing. So we know social media can put a lot of pressure on teenagers. I think it puts a lot of pressure on everyone. So do you think that being involved in sports can provide a healthier outlet or a counterbalance to all this social media? Yeah  before social media, sports were our social outlets,  we didn't have to worry about, were  people talking bad about me and that sort of thing.

'cause people were outside playing, engaging in sports in the neighborhood too. You know, we. Right now, I think we're talking about more competitive sports, but I think it's always important to keep in mind that sports starts at a young age and people outside playing and, doing athletic stuff before they even call it sport.

 So kind of moving that into the, high school range there's a ton of social interaction  and practicing those skills that we need moving forward into adulthood. You know, there's definitely studies that, that say that.  Adults especially that, that did team sports in high schools do better on a lot of pro-social measures  in adulthood?

 That's interesting. I don't think the same can be said with participation in social media. No, unfortunately. Yeah.  That's really, that's a whole nother podcast, Dr. Storm. Yeah, I agree. So I'm gonna talk about the pandemic a little bit. I maybe everybody's tired of it and I know you and I were in  nursing homes and other settings  during the pandemic.

So I'm really interested in, talking about. The changes that happened with young people and their mental health during the COVID pandemic in relationship to sports being on hold because it's not something that I've really thought about. But I can imagine, you know, when sports  and other activities were on hold that it must have had an impact.

And I don't know what your experience has been in seeing those impacts. Yeah. You know, I don't know that I can speak directly to sports.   I do know that, we saw significant mental health impacts on, adolescents and pre adolescents when they were on lockdown for so long.

  The rate of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts went up. You know, there was a lot of depression going on, a lot of social isolation. Unfortunately, I think it also promoted social media because that's how the kids stayed in touch. And as a result  when the lockdown was lifted, a lot of 'em said  I don't really need to leave the house.

I can just do this remotely. Um, Now interestingly enough. I think that sports  got relieved from the lockdown before a lot of other stuff did.   the coaches started saying, well, if we mask and we stay, you know, six feet away from each other, we're still technically allowed to be out there.

And so they were, they started having practices fairly early and I think that was great. Yeah, I agree. I think, and one of the coaches mentioned that on the podcast, that the high school athletes were like, so happy to have sports start up again.  So I think that is really  telling.

  Yeah.  mm-hmm. Yeah. And, And you know I, I would see, soccer was really kind of the sport that I've followed in particular at that time. And I'd see kids saying, I don't care. I'll wear a mask. Just put me on the field. Yeah. So I'm really interested in the difference between girls and boys.

I  think their experience  is totally different. So do you see any difference in how sports participation supports mental health of girls compared to boys? Yeah, I do.  first of all, the sports they're in are different.  The, that, that's slowly changing. A lot of times in this.

Country when you say sports most people take of football right away, right?  Title IX was instituted how many decades ago, and I think it's really changed opportunity and exposure for women and certainly what's going on like in the WNBA is helping that come more into the limelight as far as their personal experience.

I think when it comes down to it  what we see that. Athletes are aware of coaching. They're aware of the competition. Both males and females are aware of their body image and the social outlook and how willing they are to talk about that is a little bit different. So I guess really what I'm saying is at the heart of it, I don't see a lot of difference, although on the surface it looks very different.

Yeah  I think, yeah, I feel, do feel like there is a difference, but yeah, body image is a whole, again, a whole nother podcast I think would probably be good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So injuries, they happen.  We, again, we've talked about it, we talked about it on the podcast with the coaches and the good and the bad about when a student athlete gets injured and it can obviously be really tough.

So what emotional challenges do you see them go through and what is your advice to families and coaches to best support the athlete when they get injured? this is a, a great question and I think it deserves a lot of attention. You know, when an athlete  even a high school or middle school athlete, when they sustain an injury that takes them out of their sport for any real period of time  they develop what we call a shattered sense of self, where they really start to.

Feel everything kind of fading away.   Their sense of  community with the team, the sense of themselves as an athlete. And they start even young, fairly young kids start asking  who am I what, without this, what do I do with myself and am I ever gonna get back to it? And.

I think the first thing that  I would recommend for parents and coaches is to keep an eye out for that  and really help the athlete try and stay connected with the team as much as possible. But I think this is where it does become important to have a professional involved because  like many different situations.

Athletes might be more willing to say something to a relative stranger than they will to their coaches or their parents. You know, they're willing to acknowledge a little bit more and be a little bit more emotionally vulnerable. So  I think it's important to start thinking about help at that time.

That's a really good thought, and I hadn't really thought about that, that a student athlete is more likely to share vulnerable things with a third party.  Not a family member or coach. That's, yeah. Yeah. So my last question, from what you've seen, how can the lessons and experiences from high school sports carry forward into adulthood and support lifelong mental health?

Like I am really interested in what is the lesson or  what can we distill out from that experience that is so wonderful for mental health in the high school athlete, and then we can, how we can utilize that in mental health for adults because it is such a challenge currently in our society.

So how can we bring them forward, these lessons? Yeah, this is a, again, a really important question and,  I think it's, it's interesting to look at, there are different variables for individual sports versus team sports and, team sports. Certainly the things that we wanna promote are a sense of.

Communal wellbeing. And you know, when I do well, the team does well. And, when the team does well we're all elevated. And what it takes to do that teamwork, communication helping out your teammate when they're feeling down.  being able to get over your own mistakes and not getting too wrapped up in that.

'cause that's certainly something that, that can be a, a problem for a lot of athletes is they overfocus on their mistakes and  being able to overcome that is, is something you need to be able to do in adulthood. You need to be able to leave those behind um, with individuals.

I think it's really interesting 'cause they have kind of different things that build their self-esteem. Again, there's the resilience. It's kind of all on me, Which can have a dark side to it, if we don't do as well as we hope, that can be pretty damaging. But  you know, if we can help the person manage that, they realize that as they go through life and do have failures, even if they can be traced back to the individual  it's okay.

 we can work through that  and continue. Yeah, those are great insights. Dr. Jon Glass. Always a pleasure. I enjoy the conversation. If people want to learn more about your practice, can you tell us what the website is and. I believe you also have an Instagram page. So yes we do have a fledgling Instagram page.

We're trying to get more out there.  And you know, I, we, I haven't done anything along the lines of this podcast, so I'm  I will be  creating a link and having that on there.  And then  our website is northshore psychological associates.com.  Certainly, you know, if you're in our area, you can look us up. I have  you know  several colleagues in my practice that work on  the same.

General areas that I do.  But we've also got a pretty diverse staff here that, that work on a lot of different things.  So the Instagram is at North Shore Psychology,  so that's, yeah, that's the Instagram. And then you said  the link to the practice is@northnorthshorepractices.org.

Northshore practices.com. Dot com. Yeah. All right. We got it. We'll link all those in the  podcast information. And Dr. Glass, thank you so much for joining us.  Thank you for having me, Dr. Storm. It was a wonderful experience. 

Thank you for tuning in to Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you found value in what you heard, please consider subscribing to our podcast on your favorite platform.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, you can reach out to us on our website. We would love to hear from you.

So, until next time, stay curious, stay compassionate, and keep taking healthcare by storm.