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Mental Wellness And Behavioral Health

Mental Wellness & Behavioural Health Services – A Collaborative And Intersectoral Approach Of UCF To Improve Mental Healthcare Treatment Facilities At The Primary Care Level

UCF provides high-quality healthcare and aims at improving health care services and their access for all. At UCF, the patients from all socioeconomic and health insurance statuses enjoy equitable healthcare and timely treatments with fast turnarounds. At UCF, we give prime importance to mental wellness and behavioral health. Our focus is to help individuals, families and communities to heal, energize and become aware of their inner strengths.

The psychiatric and psychological care at UCF precisely diagnoses and distinguishes between various psychological, mental, and behavioral health problems. Behavioral health is the scientific study of behaviors, emotions, and biology of the individual in association with their function in routine life, self-esteem, and mental well-being. Habits and behaviors affect physical and mental wellbeing. The nature versus nurture debate ensues in the health sciences, with most studies concluding them to be inevitable parameters in the analysis of mental and behavioral wellbeing. It draws parallels and forms association between the well-being of the mind and body of the individual to bring forth informed solutions and decisions. Many behaviors impact mental health such as addictive behaviors, drinking habits, substance abuse, or even eating habits interfere with mental health.

Mental health disorders are treated with psychotherapies, psychological counseling, medications, or all of them. Depending on the type of disease and its severity, the patient may only need to get psychological counseling, or medications and intensive care. The diagnosis of mental illnesses is a complex process as many types of stimuli affect the mental wellness and behavioral health of the individual. Our multi-specialty team consisting of many experts in the mental wellness and behavioral health services enables correct diagnosis and efficient treatment of diseases. Mental health counselling determines the social, biological, psychological, and genetic reasons for mental disorders and behavioral health challenges.

Behavioral Health is Different from Mental Health

Behavioral health affects mental health. It is about habits which may cause mental health problems. Habits such as drug abuse, eating disorders, and other addictive behavior patterns can cause mental health problems.

What is primary care mental health?

Increasing the access as well as efficiency of primary care is one of the main objectives of UCF. Efficient and robust primary care facilities have proven to reduce the mortality rates and spread of diseases. The comprehensive primary care facilities at UCF incorporate a detailed mechanism to check mental health and wellbeing of the individual. Primary care in mental health sector offers the following services:

Diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
Enacting strategies to prevent mental diseases.
Implementing strategies at community level, with active participation of family and community.
Applying different behavioral science and psychosocial skills in disease diagnosis, such as counselling, interpersonal skills, and interviewing to improve primary healthcare’s health outcomes.
Availability of psychotropic medicines at primary care level.

Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, and diabetes not only affect physical health but have implications on mental health too. Thus, the healthcare practitioners in primary care need to be trained in mental health problems to suggest treatment and specialist care for acute and chronic mental health problems. By focusing on mental health solutions in primary care, many mental disorders associated with physical diseases can be resolved in their early stages. It is a more holistic method to patient care that ensures improved prevention of mental illnesses.

Mental health counselling in primary care creates convenience for the patients in many ways:

Primary care is the first contact level of the communities with the national health system. It is the easiest and closest point of access in healthcare for the individuals, family, and community.
Primary care is more financially accessible. It reduces the medications and consultations costs for the patients. The overall costs of healthcare are significantly minimized by the integration of mental health services in the primary care unit. The patients incur additional costs of transport, medication, and consultation if they visit secondary and tertiary care units directly. Visiting primary care units for mental health counselling is more effective in terms of treatment and is financially feasible too.
Healthcare practitioners at primary care units serve at community level so they are more aware of the language, culture, family and personal history and background of the patients. These factors ease out communication of the patient with the healthcare professional.

Mental Health Treatments at UCF

Most mental disorders are treated with lifestyle changes, psychotherapies or medicines, or a combination of both. The psychiatrists implement various methods for treatment such as psychosocial interventions, medications, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and psychotherapy, depending on the needs of the patient. Mental disorders not only affect behaviors and activities, but they can also have physical signs and symptoms.

UCF Texas provides mental health diagnosis and treatment for many mental illnesses such as:

Anxiety

Intense fear or worry that can disrupt routine activities is a symptom of an anxiety disorder. If your stress levels are beyond your control, you need to get a consultation from a mental health professional. Anxiety disorder can occur to children and adults. It makes the individual excessively fearful of the future and reduces their confidence in their actions and decisions. The individual also feels irritable and has difficulty in concentrating. The physical symptoms and signs of anxiety disorder are irritability, swearing, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, pain in the muscles, trembling or feeling twitchy, nervousness, or irritable bowel syndrome. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is recognized as one of the most effective psychotherapies to treat anxiety disorders. It includes exposure therapy in which the individual encounters the situation or object that makes them anxious to make them confident about being able to manage the situation. The medications used in the treatment are anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, and others such as sedatives.

Depression

Depression is a recurring feeling of sadness or loss of interest. It becomes a disorder when the depressive symptoms continue in the long-term or when a person experience suicidal thoughts. Many factors can lead to depression such as trauma, family history and genetics, certain medications, and substance abuse. Depression is treated with therapies and/or medications such as antipsychotic medications. Therapies such as white light therapy is also used to alleviate depression. Other lifestyle changes such as exercise, social support, healthy diet, stress reduction, having sufficient sleep, and avoiding drugs and alcohol have also proven helpful in relieving depression.

Bipolar Disorder

This disorder is characterized by manic highs and depressive lows. The exact cause for the bipolar disorder has not been identified yet, rather it is attributed to several factors, ranging from the brain’s structure to family history. Its treatment may comprise psychotherapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and medications such as atypical psychotics, and mood stabilizers. The treatment for bipolar disorder consists of at least one atypical antipsychotic and/or mood stabilizing drug, as well as psychotherapy. The most common medicines used in the treatment of bipolar disorder are valproic acid and lithium carbonate. The lithium medication treats the aggressive behaviors during the acute manic attacks and is very successful in the long-term treatment for the disorder. Bipolar disorder needs treatment and does not go away on its own.

Attention Deficit Disorder

ADHD causes impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and difficulty in concentration. It is often diagnosed in children, and it frequently persists until adulthood. Causes and risk factors for ADHD include brain injury, lead exposure at a young age or during pregnancy, tobacco or alcohol use during pregnancy, low weight at birth, and premature delivery. ADHD therapy teaches social, behavioral, and academic skills to adults and children. The behavioral therapy uses tactics such as a reward and punishment system to reinforce and discourage habits and removing the triggers of a bad habit. The dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) resolves emotional and social changes due to ADHD or other types of neuro-psychological disorders. We also treat it with training the parents of the affected child in behavior management and implement behavioral intervention procedures in the classroom of children.

Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities interfere with motivation and self-esteem. These disorders affect abilities in verbal and non-verbal skills, math, reading, and written expression. They mostly affect children in the school-going age and affect more boys than girls. In fact, about two-third of children with learning disabilities are boys. Moreover, the patients with learning disabilities may further develop literacy, behavioral, low self-esteem, depression, and adult social adjustment issues. The intervention depends on the extent and nature of the disability. The most common treatment for learning disabilities is special education. These trainers teach children skills with therapies such as occupational therapy or speech therapy. We use special technologies, software, memory aids, visual techniques and other methods to teach children with learning disabilities. UCF implements a fully customized plan for every patient according to their learning disabilities