On May 17^th, we celebrate National Employee Health and Fitness Day! By sharing tips on how to stay active even during busy workdays, National Employee Health and Fitness Day is a day to raise awareness of the health benefits of physical activity and remind employees about the necessity and advantages of regular physical activity. Physical activity provides a much-needed break from the stress of everyday tasks and duties and gives us energy, boosts mental ability, and prevents fatigue throughout the rest of the day. Magellan Health’s Evergrace Davis, associate information security compliance analysist, is also an AFAA Certified Group Fitness Instructor. In 2020, Davis launched “KeepItMovin with Grace,” a workout program that provides individuals of all ages and fitness levels with fitness classes and step challenges. Davis began her fitness journey over 12 years ago as a workout class instructor and lives by the motto, “keep it moving” with the goal of living life to the fullest. Continue reading to learn Davis’ tips on how employees can find ways to include physical fitness throughout even the busiest workdays.

How can employees who work from home find ways to prioritize health and fitness throughout their workday?

I know that working from home can be challenging but we must find ways to prioritize fitness by keeping our bodies moving. Fitness is so beneficial to your health and can improve your work mood and overall health.  I suggest trying the STOP method which means “Stop Typing on PC.” Practice this by blocking off time on your calendar for fitness breaks. Scheduling time is making fitness a priority because we sit for hours in one place and many only get up for coffee, lunch, and bathroom breaks. Here are some suggestions below:

• Put on your gym shoes and go for a walk around the block.
• Step away from your computer for five minutes of stretching.
• Getting some direct sunlight improves your health making you feel recharged and refreshed to continue with the workday.

How can employees who work in an office find ways to prioritize health and fitness throughout their workday?

There are ways for employees to prioritize their health and fitness while working in the office throughout the workday both indoors and outdoors. The STOP method still applies while in the office!  Block off time and schedule your fitness breaks. Always be prepared for working out by having a change of clothes, towel, water bottle, and gym shoes in the car. Here are some more suggestions employees can do while working in an office:

• Indoors: Walk up and down the hallways, up and down stairs, go the fitness center if your company provides one and get on the treadmill, stretch, or lift some weights.
• Outdoors: Go outside to stretch or take a walk around the building, or a quick jog.

By doing this, employees can improve their mood and health by making sure they keep moving even during the workday!

What are the benefits of regular physical activity? What are some easy ways for employees to add physical activity into a busy workday?

There are so many benefits to maintaining regular physical activity. By prioritizing physical activity consistently, your body learns to look forward to daily movement and exercise. Another benefit are the results that you will see from consistently staying active. You may find yourself feeling better, less stressed, and possibly experiencing more energy, and better sleep.

Total wellbeing means that you feel fulfilled in all aspects of your life. Your mental health is a big part of your wellbeing. It is important to be aware of the signs or symptoms of mental stress so you can seek help or recognize when someone you care about may need help.

5 reasons why it is important to pay attention to your mental health and wellbeing

1. Mental illness is more common than you think. Mental illness does not discriminate, it affects people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. One in five U.S. adults experience mental illness, 1 in 20 U.S. adults experience serious mental illness, and 17% of youth aged 6 – 17 experience a mental health condition. Unfortunately, too many don’t seek help.
2. Mental illness affects your physical health. Your brain is part of your body. Mental and physical health are connected. In fact, mental illness can be the root of many physical symptoms. For example, if you are suffering from insomnia, heart palpitations, or fatigue, your doctor may want to rule out depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions as a potential cause.
3. Diseases or injuries can increase your risk. Just as mental illness can cause physical symptoms in your body, physical diseases, like cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and trauma such as head injuries, can raise your risk of mental illness. It is important that you are honest about your experiences when speaking with your doctor.
4. It runs in families. Mental illnesses tend to run in families due to both genetic factors and family cultural issues. Remember to include things like depression, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in your family health history along with information about heart disease, cancer, and other conditions.
5. Early detection makes a difference. Like medical conditions, getting diagnosed early generally leads to better outcomes. Getting the help you need can prevent symptoms of mental illness from getting worse and causing negative effects on your life, including strained relationships and difficulty managing work and finances.

Visit our 2022 Mental Health Month web page to discover more tools to address and spread awareness about mental health, wellbeing, and specific conditions as we recover from the pandemic and deal with civil, economic, and global unrest.

Sources: health.clevelandclinic.org, nami.org, nih.org

Being a parent of a child with physical, emotional, or behavioral problems can be exhausting. Try to take good care of your physical and emotional health. Doing so will help provide you with needed energy to care for your child with special needs.

Schedule time for yourself. Use a calendar or planner to set aside specific times for buying and cooking healthy foods, resting, visiting with friends, and doing other things you enjoy. Don’t be afraid to ask family members or friends for help. Take a break while your child uses community services (such as school programs, social skills training, job training, and counseling). Ask your doctor about other resources that can provide you with needed personal time.

Learn ways to handle the normal range of emotions, fears, and concerns that go along with raising a child with special needs. Seek information about your child’s condition so that you will know what to expect. Use exercise, positive self-talk, relaxation, deep breathing, and other techniques to help you handle stress. Learn how to recognize when you need to use them.

Find out whether there is a support group in your area for parents of children with the same condition. Local and national groups can help connect families and provide much-needed sources of information. It may help you to share your feelings with others or simply to find out how others have addressed common issues. It can be comforting to talk with other parents who also face the challenges and joys of raising a child with special needs.

Seek and accept support from others. Don’t wait for information and assistance to come to you. Consider using respite care, which is a family support service that provides a break for parents and siblings. Trained staff can relieve family members from caregiving duties as needed. These breaks can help families communicate in a less stressful context and allow parents to focus complete attention on their other children for a while.

Allow yourself time to grieve if needed. You may feel a sense of loss about the dreams you had for your child. As you work through your grief, you will be better able to care for yourself and your family. Talk with your doctor or another health professional if you think you or another family member may be depressed or having other emotional difficulties.

Be realistic. In raising any child, there are no guarantees for success. It is important to remember to do the best you can and to know that you can’t control everything.

Believe in yourself. When self-doubts creep into your thoughts, remember to focus on the many good things you do for yourself and your child. If you are having problems dealing with your feelings about your child’s condition, talk with your doctor about whether counseling may be helpful.

Work with family and friends. Your family and friends may have concerns about your child. To address those concerns, you can:

• Talk about how your child’s condition affects you. Be open and honest about your hopes and concerns. Encourage others to talk about their feelings.
• Encourage them to learn about your child’s condition.
• Ask your other children to help with the care of the affected child as much as they are able. Allow them to refuse to help if they do not want to.

For additional information, visit MagellanHealth.com/MYMH

This document is for your information only. It is not meant to give medical advice. It should not be used to replace a visit with a provider. Magellan Health does not endorse other resources that may be mentioned here.

It’s 11:30 on a Tuesday night in the emergency department of a local county hospital. The doctor pulls back the curtain on his next patient and frowns. He has seen this man before. He looks down at the chart and recognizes the name. He’d been in about eight weeks before with trouble breathing and chest pains. Gears click in doctor’s memory, as he recalls this patient. His medical work-up had shown nothing acutely wrong. He’d been encouraged to take his usual medications, and sent home with instructions to see his regular doctor as soon as possible to make sure his chronic diabetes and congestive heart failure were under good control.

The doctor pulls a stool across the floor and sits down bedside.

“Hi Brian, what seems to be the trouble?”

“My chest. I couldn’t breathe. And I can’t seem to concentrate. I just don’t want to do anything.” Brian’s voice is listless and low, and he looks fatigued.

“I see you were in a couple of months ago. Did you go and see your regular physician?”

Brian shrugs but doesn’t say anything. His eyes are fixed firmly on the floor.

The doctor pauses. He looks at Brian for a while. The man looks like he hasn’t taken care of himself. His clothes are wrinkled, and he’s lost some weight since his last visit to the emergency department. The doctor looks over Brian’s vitals and labs. He finds nothing concerning on physical exam. He asks, “Brian, has anyone ever talked to you about depression?”

In the case above, Brian is a fictional character, but the situation is not. The co-occurrence of mental health disorders with physical ailments is common. A Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report found that 68 percent of adults with mental disorders have medical conditions, and 29 percent of adults with medical conditions have mental disorders. The most common of these is depression. Many research studies have found high rates of comorbid depression with chronic and terminal medical conditions. In many cases, the medical conditions or treatments for the conditions can cause depression. In others, the depression itself can lead to health behaviors that cause or worsen medical illness, and even higher risk of death. For instance, persons with depression have higher rates of smoking cigarettes than the general public. This can lead to heart disease. But, depression itself can also cause changes in brain chemistry and platelets, which can worsen existing heart disease.

Common Conditions with Comorbid Depression

Comorbid depression in some medical conditions is common. According to the National Institute of Health, there is a close relationship between depression and other physical ailments:

• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
• Cancer
• Coronary artery disease
• Congestive heart failure
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy
• HIV/AIDS
• Multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Stroke
• Systemic lupus erythematosus

Depression also has a negative effect on treatment and outcomes for these diseases. A 2015 published research study showed those with comorbid depression had more negative outcomes for their primary ailment than those who only had the primary ailment. Research also shows a lower quality of life, lower compliance with medical treatments, and lower rates of exercise and healthy eating habits for patients with comorbid depression compared to those with the same physical ailment(s) who did not suffer from depression.

This comorbidity has consequences beyond the health of the patient. People with multiple medical conditions are a rapidly growing and extremely costly segment of the US population. Patients with behavioral health disorders spend more on treatment for general medical conditions. When compared to those without depression, overall health care spending for medical conditions is higher than those without, in addition to treatment for the depression itself.

Improving Care for Comorbid Behavioral Health Conditions

The first step is identifying patients with comorbid behavioral health conditions before they reach the dangerous and costly levels discussed above. The primary care setting may be the best place to first find depression. But how?

Magellan’s Screen and Engage program is an innovative, user-friendly application that primary care physicians (PCPs) can use to identify patients at risk for a mental illness. Using a Magellan-provided iPad, the patient answers questions about his or her health and well-being while waiting for an appointment. The screening tools are also available in Magellan’s Virtual Care Solutions. Magellan’s proprietary algorithms assess the results, identify potential behavioral health issues and suggest recommendations for treatment, and flag clinicians to engage the patients.

The benefits of the tool are clear. Given the limited amount of time that a PCP has for each appointment, he or she must focus the conversation on the primary reason for the visit. As such, there is little opportunity to probe for behavioral health concerns. By conducting the screening before the short appointment, the PCP has a chance to be notified of the screening results, and discuss them during the visit.

Screening for behavioral health conditions is just the first step. Step two is treating them. In general, depression is treated with either medications and/or cognitive behavioral (CBT) psychotherapy. CBT is a specific type of therapy that relies on identifying and changing ones thoughts that can lead to depression. Research shows that the combination of the two is better than either done separately. While it may be easy to receive anti-depressants from medical doctors, it is often difficult to find CBT.

Cobalt, Magellan’s computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CCBT) program, is a cost-effective solution to address common behavioral health conditions. Cobalt provides CCBT online or through a smartphone/tablet app. This makes face-to-face CBT—proven to work but often difficult to find providers, especially in rural areas and for working people—available anywhere, any time. It is also a more private approach to CBT. Patients can access treatment from their homes versus an office.

Computerized CBT has proven to be just as effective as in-person CBT. Magellan offers Cobalt modules for insomnia, depression, anxiety, substance use disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, treating more than 90 percent of behavioral health conditions seen in primary care and behavioral settings.

Tackling Comorbid Conditions for a Healthy Future

At Magellan, we have made it our mission to help individuals like Brian, whose case is all too common. Tackling comorbid behavioral health issues alongside common medical conditions is one way we do it. Investing in and using new technology, we can identify more people who need help and expand their access to effective, proven treatments.