Cleveland Cavaliers Forward Kevin Love Commits $500,000 To UCLA Mental Health Research
(CBSLA)- Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love has been outspoken about his battle with mental health and his desire to raise awareness of mental health issues. His efforts on that front continued Monday when Love committed $500,000 to his alma mater, UCLA, to go towards their work diagnosing, preventing, treating, and destigmatizing anxiety and depression.
The funds from Love are being donated through his foundation and matched by UCLA Centennial Term Chair in order to establish the Kevin Love Fund Centennial Chair in the school's psychology department.
"Kevin Love has shown not only tremendous leadership, but also tremendous heart, both on and off the court," UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement. "Thanks to his gift, the UCLA psychology department will be able to further its efforts to help those who suffer from anxiety and depression and the stigma that surrounds these conditions."
Love's work on mental health issues earned him the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at Sunday night's ESPY Awards. His Kevin Love Fund was founded in 2018 with the goal of assisting over 1 billion people in the next five years.
"I'm concerned about the level of anxiety that people are feeling. Recent events, including the novel coronavirus outbreak, have put our society under enormous stress," Love said in a statement. "I am happy to be able to help UCLA, my alma mater, work toward solving some of society's biggest underlying issues. I hope one day we are able to erase the stigma around anxiety and depression, and we can only do that by improving diagnosis and treatment, fostering public conversations about mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it."
The school says the funding will go to a scholar in the psychology department whose research could help advance more personalized treatments for people living with anxiety and depression.