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Explore the role of mental and behavioral health professionals, the causes of the opioid epidemic, and self-care techniques to relieve stress. Learn about the importance of mental health, especially for teenagers, and how mental and behavioral health problems are treated.
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Learning Objectives • Understand the role of mental and behavioral health professionals in relation to other healthcare providers • Understand the scope and causes of the current opioid epidemic in the United States. • Learn about self-care techniques to relieve stress
What is Mental and Behavioral Health? • Mental and behavioral health is a field of healthcare that focuses on promoting emotional wellbeing and treating mental illnesses, both those with physiological causes (brain chemical imbalance, genetics, etc.) and environmental causes (trauma, accidents, etc.) • Mental and behavioral health uses a variety of techniques to prevent and treat different conditions including medications, therapy/counselling, and self-care strategies.
Why is mental and behavioral health so important especially for teenagers? According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness:
How are mental and behavioral health problems treated? • Mental illnesses and behavioral health problems are often complex and can require multiple types of treatments across multiple healthcare fields to really deal with all of the aspects of a mental illness. • There are four main branches in healthcare and all are involved in the prevention and treatment of mental and behavioral health problems. • Primary Care • Specialty Care • Allied Health • Public Health • Self Refection: What role do you think each of these branches plays in treating mental and behavioral health problems?
Four Different Branches of Healthcare • Primary Care: “Primary care includes health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings.” • Specialty Care: “Specialized consultative care, usually on referral from primary or secondary medical care personnel, by specialists working in a center that has personnel and facilities for special investigation and treatment” • Allied Health: “A large cluster of health care related professions and personnel whose functions include assisting, facilitating, or complementing the work of physicians and other specialists in the health care system” • Public Health: “Public health promotes and protects the health of people and [their] communities. Those working in public health try to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place. [They] also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors… From conducting scientific research to educating about health, people in the field of public health work to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy.”
Four Different Branches of Healthcare Scenario: Mikhal is a junior in high school. He is a good student, is on the soccer team and participates in multiple clubs. Lately, however, he has started to feel very tired and run down. There is so much going on; he is studying for the ACT, trying to figure out where he wants to go to college and managing school work and friends. Sometimes it feels like it is all too much. He sometimes feels trapped and hopeless, but at other times, he just feels like he doesn’t care about anything. He knows that his grades and classes should be important, but he just feels empty. His grades begin to slip because even though he knows he can do his work and should do his work, he just can’t make himself do it. Sometimes, he feels like everything would be better if he were dead. He feels lost and scared because he doesn’t know why he is feeling this way. He talks to his mother about this and she makes him an appointment with his pediatrician to try to figure out what is wrong.
Four Different Branches of Healthcare • Primary care: Mikhal sees his primary care provider, his pediatrician. After talking with Mikhal, she diagnoses him with depression. She also recommends for him to go see a psychiatrist. • Specialty care: Mikhal sees the adolescent psychiatrist that his doctor recommends. This psychiatrist prescribes him medication to treat his depression and sets up appointments to monitor his care. He also prescribes Mikhal to go to a counselor. • Allied Health: Mikhal sees the counselor once a week. The counselor helps Mikhal talk about how he is feeling and to better understand the factors that contribute to it like stress. She also helps him learn about self-care techniques to manage his depression. • Public Health: Mikhal’s primary care doctor reports statistics about adolescent mental health to the local health department. Noticing that mental health incidences are up in their community. The public health department decides to start a program at the local high school to teach students self-care and mental health awareness.
How are mental and behavioral health problems treated? • Every case is different, but this is one example of how different healthcare professionals work together to treat mental and behavioral health conditions. • What might happen to Mikhal if he doesn’t ask for help with his depression? • What might some reasons that people, especially teenagers, don’t get the help that they need for mental and behavioral health problems?
Careers in Mental and Behavioral Health • In addition to those already mentioned, what are some possible careers for those who want to work in mental and behavioral health? Make a list of as many possible careers as you can.
Allied Health Occupations • Allied health professionals include many healthcare providers outside of the traditional roles of physician or nurse. Here are some that may work in relation to mental and behavioral health. • Counselor • Nutritionist • Behavioral Therapist • Psychologist • Social Worker • Wellness coach
Is a career in Mental or Behavioral Health right for you? • What special skills do you think someone who works in mental and behavioral health would need to do their job? • Mental and Behavioral Health Professionals need to have: • Good communication skills • Ability to relate to people from many different backgrounds • Patience and discretion • A high level of professionalism
What types of problems do mental and behavioral health professionals solve? • What are current mental and behavioral health issues that you have heard about in the news?
Self-care: a health careers tool kit • Working in healthcare can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be stressful. • People in healthcare have to work long hours, work in a fast-paced environment and tell patients and families that they or a loved one is dying. • Because of this, physicians and other healthcare professionals have higher rates of depression and suicide than those in other professions. • To help prevent this, anyone going into healthcare professions must learn how to practice good self-care strategies
Self-Care • Self-care takes conscious practice and preparation, but research tells us that it pays off. • To reduce stress, at your own leisure, please follow one or all of the exercises stated below: • Square breathing • Tense and relax • Visual imagery • You can find more relaxation techniques in youtube.
Self-care plan • Make a plan to incorporate at least one of these techniques into your daily routine. • Make sure that your plan is specific and something that you can do. • Start small, maybe with 5 minutes and then slowly build up to a meaningful practice.
