The Silenced Athlete

Description

Pascal Siakam is a renowned basketball player on the Raptors team. In the previous season, Pascal Siakam had to be off a quarter of the season due to a light sprain in the player’s ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), which resulted in the Raptors losing multiple games. This caused the team to lose revenue and sponsorships, thus resulting in management pressuring Pascal to return to the court too early. This has caused a strain on Pascal’s mental health and further exacerbated his diagnosed depression. Currently, Pascal Siakam has arrived back to the facility with a shoulder injury. He is seeking mental health and physiotherapy treatment at the facility. The full recovery of his injury is expected to take at least half the sport’s season but his management expects him to return by the end of the playoffs. The player has currently built a trusting relationship with the social workers and nurses there. The player confides in his dilemma to the social worker that he wants to return to the field as soon as possible but is fearful that he will worsen his injury if he does. The team’s doctor and management are working on a treatment plan that is expected to speed the recovery process but the treatment is not commonly practiced. The social worker alongside the nurse creates a meeting with the management in order to advocate to give the patient a longer recovery period. The management chosen representatives are the project manager and the sports media PR.