Mental Health Awareness

May is Mental Health Awareness month.  Please view the video below to learn more about psychotherapy. In psychotherapy, psychologists apply scientifically validated procedures to help people develop healthier, more effective habits. 

Get the facts, Therapy works! 








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Health and Your Child: Tips to Become an Active Family

Keeping a regular exercise routine or engaging in physical activities has many benefits for your mental health and physical health. I previously wrote a blog post on Improving Your Health Status. Given this time of year many strive to change their lifestyle and get healthier. For parents, changing your routine or adding exercise may be more challenging. One way to decrease the challenge is to make time for the entire family to be active.

Here are some ideas to help your family be active together.

Make Time

• Identify free times. Keep track of your daily activities for one week. Pick two 30-minute time slots you could use for family activity time.
• Add physical activity to your daily routine. For example, walk or ride your bike to work or a friend's house, walk the dog with your children, exercise while you watch TV, or park farther away from your destination.
• Try to walk, jog, or swim during your lunch hour, or take fitness breaks instead of coffee breaks. Try doing something active after dinner with your family, or on weekends.
• Check out activities requiring little time. Try walking, jogging, or stair climbing.

Bring Others Into It

• Ask friends and family to support your efforts.
• Invite them to be active with you.
• Set up a party or other social event with activities that get people moving, like dancing or having a jump rope contest.
• Exercise with friends.
• Play with your kids or ask them to join you for an exercise video or fitness game.
• Develop new friendships with physically active people. Join a group, such as the YMCA or a hiking club.

Energize Yourself

• Plan to be active at times in the day or week when you feel you have a lot of energy.
• Convince yourself that if you give it a chance, physical activity will increase your energy level—then try it.

Stay Motivated

• Plan ahead. Make physical activity a regular part of your family's schedule. Write it on a family activity calendar.
• Join an exercise group or class. Sign your children up for community sports teams or lessons.
• Pick activities requiring no new skills, such as walking or climbing stairs.
• Exercise with friends who are at the same skill level as you are. Create opportunities for your children to be active with friends.

Build New Skills

• Find a friend who can teach you new skills.
• Take a class to develop new skills and enroll your children in classes too, such as swimming, dancing, or tennis.

Use Available Resources

• Select activities that don't need costly sports gear, such as walking, jogging, jumping rope, or doing push-ups.
• Identify cheap, local resources in your area, such as programs through your community center, park or recreation group, or worksite.

Make the Most of All Conditions

• Develop a set of activities for you and your family that are always available regardless of weather, such as indoor cycling, indoor swimming, stair climbing, rope skipping, mall walking, dancing, and active games that you can play indoors.

Copyright 2014 Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D. 

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Source:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/get-active/activity-plan.htm 

Understanding Adolescent Self-Harm Behavior

Self-injury, also called self-harm, is the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It's typically not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration. Self-harm behaviors may also be linked to a variety of mental disorders, such as depression, eating disorders and borderline personality disorder. 

The following video presents on adolescent self-harm behaviors.

Featured presenters:

Reo W. Newring, Ph.D.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Paige Lembeck, M.A.

Graduate Student

Children's Hosptial & Medical Center

Omaha, Nebraska

Psychologists and Health Care Reform

Psychologists have been working in primary health care settings for over 30 years (McDaniel & LeRoux, 2007) providing assessments and treatment to patients and their families. Research shows that 24 % of patients who present themselves to primary care physicians suffer from a well-defined mental disorder, and 69 % of these patients present to physicians with physical symptoms and many of their mental health needs remain undetected (APA, 2010). According to a quote in the Monitor (January 2010) by Katherine Nordal, Ph.D. (Executive Director, APA Practice Directorate) “Psychologist are the leading experts…We have the skills to improve quality of life, reduce the level of disability associated with illness and at the same time dramatically reduce cost in our health-care system”.

Psychologists Role in Primary Health Care Settings (APA, 2010; Blount & Miller, 2009; McDaniel & LeRoux, 2007):

• Conduct cognitive, capacity, diagnostic, and personality assessments that differentiate typical behavior from pathology across the lifespan, side effects of medications, adjustment reactions, or combinations of these problems
• Offer behavioral health assessment and treatment that provide youth and adults with the skills necessary to effectively manage their chronic conditions
• Diagnose and treat mental and behavioral health problems (e.g. depression or suicide risk).
• Offer consultation and recommendations to family members, significant others, and other health care providers
• Contribute research expertise to the design, implementation, and evaluation of team care and patient outcomes
• Develop interventions that are responsive to specific individual and community characteristics that may impact the treatment plan

Want your voice to be heard? Take action and contact your locate state representative. Ask them to support The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act of 2013 

Copyright 2013 Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D. 

Version previously published by Erlanger Turner, Ph.D. at http://www.apa.org/apags/programs/bulletin/2010/04/issue.pdf

Resources for LGBT Health Awareness Week

LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Health Awareness Week is March 25^th – 29^th. The theme for 2013 is Come Out for Health. Per the American Psychological Association, the 4 principles for this year include:

• Consumer Empowerment — by making resources available to the LGBT community on how to approach their health care providers about their sexual orientation and gender identity; 

• Culturally Competent Services — by directing health care providers to resources on how to become a culturally competent source of services for the LGBT community; 

• Engaged Communities — by providing outreach materials to a variety of organizations to encourage participation in LGBT Health Awareness Week; and

• Inclusive Policymaking — by engaging Congress and federal administration during LGBT Health Awareness Week and providing resources to reach out to local and state officials related to LGBT Health. 

APA's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns Office provides a range of information and resources for increasing psychologists' and others' cultural competence concerning LGBT health and this year launched a new webpage for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health.

How can you get involved?

There are several ways you and your community can support LGBT Health Awareness week.

• Set up an event in your community (e.g., round table discussion, health fair)

• Write a letter to your senator and/or congressman in support of LGBT rights

• Pledge a commitment to LGBT health

Resources for professionals:

APA Guidelines for Practice with LGBT Clients http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/guidelines.aspx

Marriage and Family Issues of LGBT People http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/marriage-and-family.aspx

Fact sheet on Psychological and Social Outcomes of Children of Same-Sex Couples  http://www.spssi.org/_data/n_0001/resources/live/Factsheet_Psychological_Social_Adjustment_V5.pdf

LGBT Families of Color: Fact sheet http://lgbtmap.org/lgbt-families-of-color-facts-at-a-glance

Human Rights Campaign- Guide to state level advocacy against hate crimes http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/a-guide-to-state-level-advocacy-following-enactment-of-the-matthew-she

Resource for parents:

Human Rights Campaign Parenting Resources:

http://www.hrc.org/resources/category/parenting

Resource Guide for Coming Out

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/resource-guide-to-coming-out

For African Americans http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/resource-guide-to-coming-out-for-african-americans

For Latinos http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/family-and-coming-out-issues-for-latinas-and-latinos

For Asian Americans http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/family-and-coming-out-issues-for-asian-pacific-americans

An Ally’s Guide to Issues Facing LGBT Americans (for heterosexual supporters) http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/an-allys-guide-to-issues-facing-the-lgbt-community

Breast Cancer Awareness

October is designated as National Breast Cancer Awareness month. In the United States, over 100,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year. Several years ago, I was personally faced with dealing with breast cancer as my mother was diagnosed. I vividly recall it was the summer before I was preparing to move away for graduate school when I got the news. It was very devastating at the time. Yet my thoughts didn’t consider what she was experiencing at that time. First, how was she going to cope with the diagnosis? Second, how was she feeling about opening up and talking about her diagnosis with her first born child right before his departure to begin a journey towards becoming a psychologist? Now that she is healthy and remains in my life I have been treasuring each day with her. I have also been making an active effort to take part in activities that focus on Breast Cancer Awareness. For example, every year I travel home to run in the Susan G. Komen 5K in her honor.

I can only imagine what it is like for a mother to tell her child about her illness. Given the incidence of breast cancer, many women are faced with this issue each year. Here are a few facts you should know about Breast Cancer:

• Typically, breast cancer starts out too small to feel and does not cause signs and symptoms
• It is important to have a regular mammogram. Doctors use a mammogram to look for early signs of breast cancer.
• Having regular mammograms can lower the risk of dying from breast cancer. 
• Men can also get breast cancer, but it is not very common. For every 100 cases of breast cancer, less than 1 is in men.

Dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis:

If you are diagnosed with breast cancer it is important to make sure you receive appropriate care. The links below provide some resources to help throughout the process.

• Tips on talking to your doctor
• Questions to ask your doctor
• Resources for getting a free mammogram
• Fact sheet on coping with breast cancer

Talking to your child about breast cancer:

View the links below for help on how to talk with your child about breast cancer and how to help them cope with your illness.

• Helping children understand cancer
• Talking to kids about “what is cancer”
• What it takes to be a caregiver
• Information on finding a support group

Written by Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D. October 2012

© Copyright 2012 Erlanger A. Turner 

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

September has been designated as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. These rates are very alarming considering both the short- and long-term effects on a child’s health status. According to the Institute of Medicine, children and adolescents ages 2 to 18 years with a BMI of > 30 or > 95th percentile for age and gender—whichever is smaller—are considered obese.  Additionally, it has been recommended that children and adolescents with a BMI > 85th percentile but < 95th percentile or a BMI of 30—whichever is smaller—be considered overweight.

What are the consequences of childhood obesity?

According to research, studies have found that compared to healthy children and adolescents, children and adolescents who are obese have significant impairments in health related quality of life (HRQOL) in all domains, including physical and psychosocial functioning (e.g., emotional, social, and school). The CDC notes that some immediate health effects include: higher risk of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol or high blood pressure, diabetes, bone and joint problems, and sleep apnea. Furthermore, long-term consequences of obesity may include type 2 diabetes, cancer (e.g., colon, breast, or prostate), osteoarthritis, or stroke.

Interventions and treatment of childhood obesity:

As a parent or caregiver, you can play a major role in improving childhood obesity. First Lady Michelle Obama has worked with organizations across the United States with her Let’s Move! initiative to expand access to nutritious foods and promote physical activity among children. To access more information about the Let’s Move! Campaign and how you can deal with the issue of childhood obesity, visit www.letsmove.gov

In my work as a psychologist and researcher, I have collaborated with others to examine the impact of obesity on children. We have found that psychologists can be a great resource to assist with changing healthy lifestyles and decreasing childhood obesity. The use of behavioral modification and behavior therapy can significantly improve health eating and physical activity. Limbers, Turner, and Varni (2008) discuss how behavior modification programs and motivational interviewing can target eating, exercise, and diet behaviors to result in significant improvements in weight status, increasing physical fitness, and psychosocial improvements for children who are obese children. 

General resources to improve healthy eating and increase physical activity:

• Strategies for parents and communities
• Basic prevention tips
• Resources & Facts from the American Psychological Association

Note: Please contact Dr. Erlanger Turner for references.

© Copyright 2012 Erlanger A. Turner