As our understanding of soldier wellness evolves, it’s clear that a comprehensive approach is essential. In today’s military landscape, physical fitness alone isn’t enough – mental toughness is equally crucial. The U.S. Army Combatives Program serves as a prime platform to nurture this mental resilience, offering Soldiers a pathway to peak performance both on and off the battlefield.

The U.S. Army Combatives Program, which includes hand-to-hand combat training, offers a valuable avenue to promote mental well-being and overall performance among soldiers. Beyond its traditional role in honing physical combat skills, this program has evolved to encompass a broader mission – one that emphasizes the cultivation of mental resilience as a cornerstone of soldier effectiveness.

Building Mental Resilience

The benefit of combat sports is that they cultivate mental toughness like no other. Soldiers are pushed to their limits, not just physically but mentally, fostering adaptability, perseverance, and a steadfast attitude in the face of adversity. Studies, such as those published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, underscore combat sports’ profound impact on enhancing mental toughness – a cornerstone of soldier effectiveness in high-stress environments.

Fostering Unity within Units

Engaging in combat sports brings Soldiers together uniquely and intensely. It strengthens team members’ bonds, trust, and camaraderie, enhancing unit cohesion and morale. A 2020 study in the Journal of Military, Veteran, and Family Health found that Soldiers who participated in combatives training reported higher levels of cohesion and teamwork – vital components for mission success.

Providing an Outlet for Frustration and Stress

The rigors of military life often lead to pent-up frustration and stress. The Combatives Program provides Soldiers with a constructive outlet to channel these emotions. By engaging in controlled physical exertion, soldiers can mitigate stress and avoid detrimental coping mechanisms. Studies, such as those in the Journal of Military Psychology, affirm the therapeutic benefits of combat sports in stress management among military personnel.

Integration of Mental Performance Consultants

To unlock the full potential of combative training, the integration of mental performance consultants is paramount. Thes specialists offer soldiers cognitive tools and strategies to optimize their performance in combat and everyday life. From stress management to enhancing focus and resilience, mental performance consultants provide a holistic approach to soldier wellness.

Improving Decision-Making Under Stress

In high-stakes scenarios, split-second decisions can mean the difference between success and failure. Research in Military Psychology underscores how combat sports improve decision-making under stress. Mental performance consultants further refine this skill, equipping soldiers with the mental fortitude to think critically and act decisively in the heat of battle.

Enhancing Recovery and Resilience

Injuries and setbacks are a part of military life, and mental resilience is crucial for recovery. Mental performance consultants can guide soldiers in maintaining a positive mindset during rehabilitation, reducing the psychological impact of injuries, and facilitating a quicker return to peak performance. The U.S. Army Combatives Program offers a wealth of mental benefits essential for Soldier wellness and performance. By fostering mental toughness, unit cohesion, and stress management, this program contributes significantly to Soldier readiness.

April is recognized as Workplace Violence Awareness Month. Forbes recently published an article entitled, “Workplace Safety And Well-Being On The Decline In 2024, Study Shows.” The article highlighted findings from a new report from the company, Traliant, Fear Factors: A 2024 Employee Survey Report on Workplace Violence, Harassment and Mental Health. According to the report:

• 1 in 4 people interviewed stated they have witnessed workplace violence happening to another employee in the last five years,
• 12% said they had been the target of workplace violence themselves.
• 86% said they either strongly or somewhat agree that employers need to do more to address the mental health needs of employees in the workplace.

In this Q&A, Magellan Healthcare’s Psychologist Advisor Dr. Yasmeen Benjamin provides insights on the connection between workplace violence and mental health awareness and suggestions on how employers can build a culture of safety.

Q: How does workplace violence awareness intersect with mental health awareness in the workplace?

Dr. Yasmeen Benjamin: A sense of safety is considered a basic human need in order for us to thrive in our daily lives. Given that we spend the majority of our time in the work environment, work environments must value safety, establish a set of expectations and policies around safety, and consistently reinforce these policies in order to provide a sense of safety for its workers.

Q: How can workplaces create a culture of safety and prevention to mitigate the risk of violence in the workplace?

Dr. Benjamin: The culture of safety should be imbedded within the values of the organization, as our actions tend to follow our value system.

Examples of safety-specific actions that would follow this value system are:

• Trainings
• Having ongoing discussions about the importance of building a culture of safety
• Directly and publicly addressing issues of workplace violence when they occur

Additionally, I’m a huge believer that prevention starts with an ability to assess. What is the propensity for violence given individual, social, and environmental factors? Are trends changing and how does one adjust and become more informed as a result of the trends?

Q: What are some common mental health challenges that employees may face as a result of workplace violence or other workplace stressors?

Dr. Benjamin: When safety is lacking, we can see an increase in stress, depression, anxiety, relationship problems, and job dissatisfaction (in the form of absenteeism, tardiness, and high turnover rates). In the instance of workplace violence, people can go on to develop conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder as well as other conditions. It is important to note that all of these symptoms and conditions are treatable with the right supports, resources, and interventions. It is also important to keep in mind, that generally speaking, the longer one is exposed to stressors, the longer symptoms can persist once the stressor is removed.

Q: What resources and support services should employers provide to promote mental well-being among employees?

Dr. Benjamin: It is important that we continue to take steps to make discussions surrounding mental health less taboo while respecting individual privacy. I highly suggest employees utilize insurance resources to access the mental healthcare that is available to them. Also, consider accessing wellness resources such as gym membership discounts and meditation/mindfulness app discounts. As best as we can (with a recognition that life can be extremely busy) it’s important to build and maintain healthy self-care habits. These types of habits can be instrumental when combating work-related and life-related stressors.

Q: Are there specific strategies or initiatives that employers can implement during Workplace Violence Awareness Month to promote mental health awareness and support?

Dr. Benjamin: Bringing attention to the topic is an important start. Hopefully, articles like this spark the type of assessment that I mentioned earlier and lead readers to include a personal assessment of their own mental health status and wellness practices.

February 1^st is known around the world as Time to Talk Day. This is a national day that encourages individuals to have an open dialogue about their mental health and to be supportive of others.

In this DocTalk article, Magellan Healthcare’s Medical Director Dr. Chris Squillaro shares why the act of talking about mental health is so important, the common misconceptions about mental health, and advice on how to approach the conversation for all age groups.

Q: In your opinion, why is it important to talk openly about mental health?

Dr. Chris Squillaro: Open conversation is important to communicate our feelings and emotions.  Without the ability to share the things that we are feeling inside, they can become confusing, which can feel out-of-control and lead to worsening emotions and possibly behavior.  Conversing about mental health also normalizes the subject matter.  The more frequently mental health is openly discussed the more accustomed we become to discuss it within our relationships and as a society.  Lastly, talking about it helps us to realize that we are not alone.  Since mental health and substance use is so prevalent in our culture, every one of us likely has a connection to someone struggling with one or the other.

Conversely, not openly discussing mental health has no benefit.  History has already shown that this only leads to stigma and worsens the potential problems associated with unaddressed mental health conditions.  If we’re not openly discussing it, we’re also not openly seeking solutions when needed.

Q: In 2024, what do you think is the biggest misconception about mental health?

Dr. Squillaro: That mental health issues are resolving as fast as our concerns about COVID.  Even though we are moving away from the day-to-day threat of COVID to us and our loved ones, mental health and the mental health system are far from recovered.  We are seeing consequences both in terms of children and adolescents who lost social connection at critical junctures in their development and are struggling to catch up from the delay.  This not only impacts them but also their family unit and their community.  The increase in alcohol and drug use that occurred during the height of the pandemic was not resolved.  Many of the people who developed addictions are just now starting to seek help and there are many who have not realized that there is a problem.

At the same time there is a greater need as the delivery of mental health services shifted.  Services moved from primarily face-to-face to virtual.  With this came a shift in the workforce.  Many mental health workers sought virtual positions and left critical services that required face-to-face interaction.  This left vacancies that have not been filled.  Every service in every level of care is experiencing staffing shortages.  The misconception is that as society normalizes, the mental health system has normalized and can accommodate the demand.  However, we are not seeing that same level of normalization at a time when it is needed.

Q: How do you think we can create a more supportive and understanding community when it comes to mental health?

Dr. Squillaro: It starts in the home.  Each generation has gotten better at this.  The best way to influence change is to teach our young.  More knowledgeable and understanding parents teach their children acceptance.  These children then begin to make a difference as they interact in the community and in school.  As the members of the generation mature, they create a more compassionate and embracing community.  When children grow up with these concepts that are taught and modeled in the home, their thinking and behavior is more solidified and less likely to be influenced by many of the external influences that continue to be intolerant.  I doubt anyone feels that society will eliminate extreme points of view that preach intolerance.  But the hope is that these extremes get smaller with the majority being a community that is accepting and supportive.

Q: What role can friends, family, or colleagues play in supporting mental well-being, and how can they contribute positively to someone who may have mental health struggles?

Dr. Squillaro: In terms of having tougher conversations and feeling safe to communicate about mental health and mental health struggles, family and friends are critical. They contribute to each other’s lives by caring and having the best of intentions, even when saying things that aren’t always easy to hear or when someone isn’t necessarily ready for help.  Many times, family and friends will be the first to identify when something is wrong and should be the first to speak up.  The most positive thing you can do for someone is to let them know what you’re seeing and that you are a person they can come to for help.  They may not be ready in that moment and they may need additional encouragement, but being there is the hardest and best thing to do.

On the other end, as things begin to improve, they will also likely see it first.  They can encourage and provide that perspective to continue instilling hope.  They can walk the recovery journey with their loved ones and make the connection even stronger.

Q: What advice would you give to someone hesitant to talk about their mental health issues?

Dr. Squillaro: An analogy I use to make this point is that emotions are like water.  Eventually, there is nothing that can hold it back and when it breaks through, it is one of the most transformative and potentially destructive forces on the planet.  Hesitating to talk about mental health doesn’t mean it’s not there.  We’re only able to hold it back for so long before the pressure becomes so great that we no longer control how it comes out and what it destroys.  Talking about mental health is like choosing to release the pressure and having a more constructive say as to how those emotions come out.

Q: Can you share 3-4 ways to begin an open dialogue with someone about your need for support?

• Identify the issue – you don’t need to know exactly what is wrong, only that your emotions are affecting your functioning.
• Identify someone who has historically made you feel safe.
• Take a risk – anxiety is about feeling conflicted. Choosing to move forward despite that feeling is how you begin to change take control of it.
• Gather information – after you’ve taken one risk, a second, third or more becomes easier. In that process, collect what people tell you and find your own path forward.

Q: Are there unique ways to approach a discussion about mental health with an adult versus a child (under 18) or a young adult?

Dr. Squillaro: Pay attention to the language you use.  Whether it’s a child, adolescent, or an adult, they must be able to understand what you’re saying.  Logically, children will need more simple language and concepts.  It’s okay with adolescents to take a more informal approach to how you communicate.  You’re trying to connect with someone who is at a stage where they may not want to rely on authority figures or feel that they know better.  Adults can have a wide range of capabilities.  Trying to match the language they use will put it in terms they can understand.

Be aware of their developmental stage.  Each age group is at a different stage of brain development.  Children will need to be told the answer and will need help developing the solutions.  They are much more open to direction from authority figures.  Adolescents are more impulsive and tend to believe they can easily overcome the issues.  They may also be more comfortable receiving recommendations from peers, so look to engage people within their age group to help reach them.  Adults have more lived experience, and their decision-making is more progressed.  Predicting the consequences in areas of importance to them helps to prepare them engage in help.  No matter what age group, sometimes people need time to process information.

As a person trying to support someone with a mental health issue, patience and consistent messaging are key.  Very few people react immediately.  Continue to support them through their process and reinforce a message of help and hope that will eventually be heard when they are ready.

Q: What tools or resources would you recommend on this topic?

Dr. Squillaro: This may sound simplistic, but doing an online search can bring you to both national organizations and local resources that may be of benefit.  It offers choices about which sites, information, or resources speak to you.  Specifically, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a resource on this: How to Talk About Mental Health | SAMHSA.  Another great organization to seek support is the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Resources | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.  NAMI also has local chapters and can provide support to families as well.

Your insurance provider will also have resources available on their website and may be able to aid in facilitating referrals or tools to help you understand what you’re feeling or start a conversation with someone who needs help.  Along the same lines, the county you live in has mental health resources and is well-versed in the network of providers who can provide the services needed.

Resources

How to Talk About Mental Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Resources from the National Alliance on Mental Illness

What do counselors, psychologists, and social workers all have in common? Each are a part of the large community of helping professions. A helping profession is a job focused on providing timely care, support, advocacy, and outreach to others in need with the intent to improve a part or the overall well-being of an individual. But what happens when there is a disproportionate group of people receiving and/or seeking help with mental illness and substance use?

The Problem

In 2019, just prior to the pandemic, more than 40 million Americans, aged 12 or older, had a substance use disorder (SUD). As noted by the CDC, the use of alcohol and other substances can lead to anxiety, depression, family problems, violence, and other health and societal outcomes. Moreover, we know that today, about 1 in 5 American adults and 1 in 5 children will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives.

When we review the latest report from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), we see that Black, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian adults were less likely to receive mental health services in the past year than White or Multiracial adults. Moreover, according to NSDUH’s report, 94% of people aged 12 or older with a substance use disorder did not receive any treatment.

Why Representation Matters

This data is critical and highlights the need for representation on many fronts within helping professions. For example, research shows that negative stereotypes and stigma surrounding mental illness and substance abuse has led to the presence of self-stigma among those experiencing mental illness and substance use disorders. Self-stigma in turn has interfered with a person’s willingness to seek help and treatment.

Increasing representation among our workforce of counselors, social workers, and psychologists can be a critical step to improving strategic outreach to underrepresented and marginalized groups that do not typically seek treatment. Moreover, improving representation among these professions can also inform our communication strategies that effectively support individuals across a range of age brackets, with cultural and linguistic differences, and other important attributes that should inform our ability to provide targeted and effective care.

Our Commitment to a Diverse Workforce

At Magellan Federal, we are committed to diversifying our team of employees and provider network because we desire to reach and serve all who are in need. As such, we are committed to removing real and perceived barriers to care and we do this in part by practicing cultural humility within our organization and with those whom we serve in our communities.

As we continue to grow and diversify, we make intentional efforts to understand each person’s wholistic identity, commit ourselves to an ongoing process of compassionate self-awareness and inquiry, remain open and teachable, and we remember that society and culture is ever evolving, and we must as well.

If you possess these values, we invite you to join our team! Click the links below to learn more.

• To learn more about becoming an employee at Magellan Federal, visit our Careers page.
• To join our Network of EAP Providers, click here.
• To learn more about the services and solutions we provide to our customers, click here.

Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) are at risk of experiencing trauma due to mental and emotional injury from a variety of causes.

If you have experienced such trauma, you may find that your relationships are impacted. Consider these strategies to protect and manage your closest relationships and all that are important to you.

Recognize triggers

We can be triggered by and experience racism.

The impacts can go beyond our own emotional pain and psychological distress to affect our relationships. When we feel triggered, it’s important to:

• Identify your emotions—Are we feeling surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, anger? It can be helpful to name to our emotions so we can use our knowledge about how to deal with them and seek help if necessary.
• Recognize the validity of your emotions—We are right to feel the way we do, and we don’t need to waste our energy questioning that. It’s important to take the time to understand how we are feeling.
• Manage your emotions—When we know what we are feeling, we are in a better place to be in control of how to approach and react to people and situations. This can have beneficial impacts for our relationships.

Set boundaries

With family members and friends, co-workers and even strangers, we must feel safe to be ourselves and feel respected. Setting and sticking to personal boundaries can help. Here’s how you can do it:

• Prioritize needs—Take the time to think through where you stand, what you can and cannot tolerate, and what makes you feel happy or uncomfortable.
• Anticipate resistance—Expect that others may not easily understand your boundaries, especially if they have different backgrounds or personalities.
• Communicate boundaries—Clearly and directly let others know of your boundaries and reiterate them if you feel they are being overstepped.
• Distance yourself if necessary—If you feel disrespected or have your boundaries crossed repeatedly, it may be time to cut off further interactions to protect your emotional wellbeing.

Practice self-care

We are our own best advocates. It is vitally important that we take time to do the things that make us happy, keep us healthy and give us an outlet from negativity. Not only will our wellbeing improve, but our relationships will also benefit. Try these:

• Try a delicious new recipe—Taking time to enjoy cooking or baking can be relaxing and fruitful when it’s time to eat!
• Enjoy quiet time to rest or nap—Sometimes it can be hard to take a break. Take the opportunities as they arise and enjoy every moment!
• Catch up for a visit or phone call with a loved one—Connecting with others can increase your sense of safety, belonging and security.
• Read a book or start a hobby—Keep your mind active and engaged in activities that bring you joy.
• Volunteer—Giving of yourself to help others can improve your confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction.
• Get outside for fresh air and exercise—Sunshine and nature have been proven to boost mood.

Additional emotional support resources

For more on BIPOC mental health, visit our website for July BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, MagellanHealthcare.com/BIPOC-MH, and be sure to check out the BIPOC mental health tip sheets and awareness campaign toolkit.

You can also check out a recording from our webinar, “BIPOC mental health and relationships.”

Have you ever been so happy or upset that it was difficult to function and go about your daily tasks and responsibilities? Or maybe something was bothering you and you didn’t feel quite right, but you couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. Sometimes it’s easy to identify our emotions, especially when they are very strong or overwhelming, like in the case of grief or joy. Other times, it can be more difficult, such as when experiencing shame or even love.

Identifying our emotions is a first step in managing them, and both are important skills in getting through life’s ups and downs and feeling more in control about how we approach and react to people and situations. Of course, we must feel our feelings. We should acknowledge and celebrate happy times, listen to our instincts if we are afraid, and otherwise give ourselves the time we need to fully experience our emotions. In this post, we’ll focus on and provide support for when we are struggling with nagging or intense emotions.

Recognizing your emotions

You might be wondering why recognizing your emotions and feelings is important. Maybe you think it’s obvious what you are feeling at any given moment. In some cases, it is. Even then, it is important to name the emotion or feeling. This allows you to get what you need from it and effectively manage it so it doesn’t become disruptive in your life. It can be difficult to deal with an emotion and move on if you haven’t identified what it is.

For example—You’re sitting at your desk at work and not feeling like yourself. You’re anxious about the work you must complete. You could sit there and continue trying to push through with the nagging feeling. Or you could take a moment to identify and name the emotion so you can take the appropriate steps to move on from feeling less than your normal self. This could be as easy as saying to yourself, “I am overwhelmed.” Now that you’ve identified the emotion and given a name to it, you can use your knowledge about how to deal with feeling overwhelmed and seek additional help if necessary.

A great resource for helping to identify your emotions is an emotion wheel. Magellan provides a tool you can use here. Print it or keep it open in your web browser so it’s handy when you need to name an emotion that may be distracting you or getting you down.

Accepting your emotions

You’ve recognized and named the emotion you’re feeling. Now what? What do you do to get to a better place of focus and contentment? You can start with accepting what you’re feeling is legitimate and worthy of your attention. And while you may not be happy about the situation that is causing your emotional response, we know that situations will arise that are out of our control. For instance, we may experience negative emotions due to a breakup with a partner, seeing a child make a poor decision, or watching a friend go on the vacation we so badly want. No matter the situation, fighting our emotions only serves to give them more fuel to thrive, which may not be exactly welcomed.

A tool to help you accept your reality and let go of resentments is called radical acceptance. Find more on this technique along with a short video and helpful exercise worksheets linked on our website for Mental Health Month.

Managing your emotions

When we know what we’re feeling, have accepted it, and are giving ourselves grace to deal with it, we’re in a better place to act and feel better. One technique that can help you do this is looking at your thoughts from a different perspective. For example, if you’re feeling lonely, think about the supports that are available to you—some may be just a phone call away. When you flip that lonely feeling and remember there are people who are there for you, your thoughts become more rooted in reality. You can then take action to feel less lonely by calling upon family or friends or searching online for ways to meet new people.

Throughout the often-challenging process of dealing with emotions, it’s important to be kind to yourself and practice self-care. Take time to do the things you enjoy. While you’re doing them, you can revel in the positive emotions you feel in the moment.

Support is also available in the form of mood tracking apps, which can help us understand the stressors and triggers that cause negative emotions. Find a clinically-reviewed list of these apps linked on our website for Mental Health Month.

Finally, when emotions are overwhelming and causing distress in your life, like causing changes in your personality, eating or sleeping habits, it’s important to seek the support of a therapist or other mental health or medical professional. You don’t need to suffer. There is help available that can make a difference.

Additional emotional support resources

For more on recognizing, accepting and managing emotions, visit our website for May Mental Health Month, MagellanHealthcare.com/Mental-Health-Month, and be sure to check out the Mental Health Awareness Campaign Toolkit.

A life-altering situation is an event that is strong enough to upend long-held routines and can positively or negatively impact an individual’s quality of life. Examples include a death of a family member, marriage, relationship issues, and in more extreme cases, can include natural catastrophes or intense personal losses.

Crisis intervention is an immediate acute intervention after a life-altering situation. This intervention type is focused on reducing the initial distress caused by the event to foster adaptive functioning and coping. Magellan Federal supports Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responders with onsite stress counselors to provide crisis intervention and support to FEMA employees so they can provide critical disaster response to areas in need. We have been supporting FEMA’s disaster response teams for more than 20 years.

We believe crisis intervention is critical to resilience and recovery due to the immediate intervention after a life-altering situation. Immediate intervention can help someone cope with the initial reactions of fear, worry, powerlessness, and/or hopelessness afterward. Here are some tips for normalizing and addressing these needs to improve long-term recovery.

How to Provide Assistance

It is hard to know exactly when and what to say to support someone who has experienced a life-altering situation. In our experience, it is best to reach out and offer assistance early, when the individual is most vulnerable. Here are a few steps that can help to facilitate crisis intervention:

1. Connect with them on the human level. Focus on listening with compassion and being present for the person while validating their experience and acknowledging their feelings.
2. Determine if their basic needs are being met. This includes food, water, shelter, clothing, and safety. Assess their immediate needs and connect them to available resources. Addressing immediate basic needs is a way to improve quality of life quickly while providing steps towards recovery.
3. Help them to identify additional needs they may have. Connect them with practical resources once their initial basic needs are cared for.
4. Connect them with available support resources. This can include family, friends, neighbors, and community helping resources.

How to Cope with a Crisis and Move Forward

Validate and Acknowledge Your Feelings

It is completely natural to feel overwhelmed after undergoing a life-altering event. Common reactions after a crisis can include strong emotions, numbing, and worry. It’s important to acknowledge and validate that these feelings may come and go in waves and are normal in short durations. Also, remind yourself that these feelings are an expected part of the acceptance and healing process. Identify strategies used in the past to cope, and determine if they would be helpful now.

Break Tasks Down into Smaller Actions

Recovering from a life-altering situation may feel overwhelming and insurmountable to some. The stress from a life-altering situation can affect cognitive and problem-solving abilities, and a survivor may need assistance with making appointments and completing paperwork. It’s crucial in those times to break down needs into smaller action steps. This will lead to small measures of success and increase confidence in coping.

Connect with Social Support

Social support includes reaching out to others in the community such as family, friends, or neighbors for help. It may feel challenging at first due to embarrassment, worrying about burdening others, doubting if support is available, and being too overwhelmed, but connecting with others can accelerate the healing process by normalizing a shared experience and decreasing isolation.

Practice Deep Breathing Exercises

Take time out of the day to practice calming exercises such as deep breathing. Controlling our breath allows our nervous system to regulate and emerge from a fight, flight, or freeze reaction. A simple exercise can be to inhale slowly through your nose and comfortably fill your lungs all the way down to your stomach. Exhale slowly through your mouth and comfortably empty your lungs. You can repeat this five times slowly and as many times a day as needed.

Develop a Structured Routine

Try to develop a structured routine to help with decision-making. This new routine may differ vastly from your previous routine based on new values post-life-altering situations.

Focus on Getting Adequate Sleep

If possible, try to get to sleep at the same time daily. Don’t drink caffeinated beverages in the evening, reduce alcohol consumption, increase daytime exercises, relax before bedtime, and limit naps to 15 minutes, not after 4 p.m. Giving your body and mind adequate time to rest will help fuel positive processing skills and emotional responses the following day.

Limit or Eliminate Alcohol Consumption

Substance use can lead to problems with sleep, relationships, jobs, and physical health.

Know When to Ask for Additional Help

If stress reactions persist over four to six weeks or worsen and impair functioning, it’s a sign to ask for additional help from a community counselor or therapist. It’s important to note that crisis intervention is not therapy. Therapy can help make a diagnosis and can be a long-term commitment with one identified provider with treatment-specific goals.

Acknowledging the Emotional Effects of a Crisis

Whether you were directly involved in the crisis or not, it is normal to experience waves of emotions after a life-altering event. Often, the structure, schedule, and routine in your life have been destroyed, and you are unsure where to start. It’s OK to feel powerlessness, overwhelmed, and even angry. At that moment, it may feel embarrassing or burdensome to ask for help. You are not alone. Know that there are people that can and want to help and getting help early is critical to being one step closer to recovery.

Additional Resources

• The Disaster Distress Helpline: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org/
• Red Cross Disaster Relief: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief.html
• FEMA assistance after a Disaster: https://www.fema.gov/assistance
• FEMA disaster preparedness: https://www.ready.gov/

Millions of people are affected by mental health conditions each year. Unfortunately, more than half of them either delay seeking treatment or do not get help at all due to the associated stigma. Stigma causes people to feel ashamed, be concerned about being treated differently, or fear the loss of their livelihood due to something that is out of their control.

Mental health stigma is among the factors contributing to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) being less likely than White people to receive treatment.[1] In 2020, 5.7% of Asian Americans, 9.4% of Black people or African Americans, and 10.7% of Hispanic or Latinx people received mental health services, compared to 21% of White people.[2]

What you can do

With compassion and support, people can recover and lead happier, healthier lives. Treatment is available and recovery is possible. But overcoming stigma is a critical first step in the process.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers some suggestions about what we can do as individuals to help reduce the stigma of mental illness:

1. Talk openly about mental health—and discuss it no differently than physical health.
2. Show compassion for those with mental health challenges.
3. Be conscious of language—remind people that words matter.
4. Educate yourself and others—respond to misperceptions or negative comments by sharing facts and experiences.
5. Encourage equality between physical and mental illness—draw comparisons to how they would treat someone with cancer or diabetes.
6. Be honest about treatment—normalize mental health treatment, just like other healthcare treatment.
7. Let the media know when they are presenting stories of mental illness in a stigmatizing way.

Additional mental health support and resources for BIPOC

On July 20 Magellan Healthcare hosted a webinar, “Navigating mental healthcare: Unique challenges faced by the BIPOC community,” for BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month. Watch a recording of the webinar as we explore different roles in behavioral healthcare and overcoming stigma to help BIPOC feel more knowledgeable and comfortable about reaching out for help: https://www.magellanhealthcare.com/event/navigating-mental-healthcare/.

Visit Magellanhealthcare.com/BIPOC-MH for more information and resources covering racism, stigma and more for BIPOC mental health.

[1] “Mental Health Disparities: Diverse Populations” American Psychiatric Association

[2] 2020 SAMHSA National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Adult Mental Health Tables