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Your Options for Responding to Mental Illness Stigma (Protectively, Collaboratively, or Assertively)
I have been open about my bipolar disorder for almost twenty years. Immediately after I spoke at my first mental health awareness event, I was met with feedback and gratitude. People thought it was a brave thing for me to speak up about my mental illness to fight stigma. But the truth is, I felt I...
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Caring for Yourself: Learning to Live with a Substance Use Disorder
Substance use and misuse have reached epidemic proportions across the United States. In a 2020 survey, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimated that more than 40 million individuals across the country over the age of 12 have a substance use disorder, with...
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Supporting Veterans and Families in Conquering PTSD
As the echoes of war fade, a different kind of battle wages on for many courageous veterans who return home. An estimated 6% of US adults, or 6 out every 100 people, will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), at some point in their lifetime. In veterans, it increases to 7 out of...
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Simple Self-Care Methods to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Depression
Anxiety is generally characterized as feelings of tension, worried thoughts, increased blood pressure, sweating, trembling, dizziness, and a rapid heartbeat. Anxiety disorders include recurring intrusive thoughts and fears about unspecified threats. While some degree of anxiety is common, it’s...
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When Staff Burnout Prevents Progress
After nearly two years of facing COVID-19 waves and realities, healthcare workers are facing unprecedented levels of burnout. Providing important support, resources and space for staff can help prevent this and other acute stress responses from turning into longer term behavioral health...
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Training the Workforce in Non-Traditional Modalities of Self-Care: A COVID-19 Silver-Lining
Over the past 18 months, the pandemic and the many associated societal stressors, have caused great suffering, and the behavioral health (BH) workforce has been no exception. The novel coronavirus and ongoing pandemic have wrought tremendous personal loss, job and/or income insecurity, and forced...
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Utilizing Trauma-Informed Care to Address Trauma Reactions in Staff: Potential Impacts on Retention
In our current sociocultural climate, we have been hearing the term “trauma” discussed more frequently, not only in healthcare, but in a variety of environments and social circles. This shift signifies a changing of the guard, as there is now a social and professional movement toward...
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Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Key Piece of the Conversation
The personal impact of being in the helping profession never crossed my mind when I was in graduate school on my way to becoming a social worker. My focus was on gleaning what I could from my professors and building what I hoped would be the most complete set of clinical skills. I was unaware at...
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Healthcare Workers: Remember to Care for Yourself Too
The anxiety and fear resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic can be profound, and nowhere is that more evident than with front line healthcare workers. Working long hours in substandard conditions with patients who are often very ill and highly contagious, they fear for their personal health and that...
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Managing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Through Self-Care Strategies
We care about our family members, close friends, our clients, our students, and many others in our lives. We experience their accomplishments and excitement as well as their struggles and despair. Because we care about others and want to do all that we can in their best interests, this relationship...
