How Peer Specialists Can Support the Quadruple Aim

By Kelly Davis, MHA Director of Peer Advocacy, Supports, and Services

Health care is increasingly focused on the quadruple aim of better outcomes, lower costs, healthier populations, and happier providers. The drive to provide services that promote these goals means decision makers must be creative in supporting the people they serve.

In behavioral health, peer support specialists are key to meeting this aim. Research has demonstrated that peers create:

Seventy Percent of Teens Think Depression and Anxiety are Major Issues Among Their Peers: It’s Time to Support Them in Creating Solutions

February 28, 2019

New research from Pew Research Center confirmed what many have known: young people are struggling and see mental health as a challenge. Seventy percent of the teens surveyed reported that depression and anxiety were major issues among their peers.

The Invisible Competition: Mental Health Within Athletics

February 26, 2019

Imagine a common scenario, two athletes on the bench. One struggling with depression, and one recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. Which seems more severe? Glaring social stigma points to the athlete with the physical injury. But mental illnesses are just as detrimental to performance. After battling depression my freshman year, and rupturing my Achilles during my sophomore year, I can declare firsthand that both setbacks are equally valid.

How Mental Health Advocacy Helped Me Fully Recover from My Eating Disorder

By Colleen M. Werner

My eating disorder first started to develop when I was still a child. I heard negative comments about my body from several trusted adults for most of my early childhood, including my pediatrician telling me that I needed to eat more salads and my grandfather telling me that I was built like a linebacker. I watched countless people around me immerse themselves in diet culture and hate their bodies. At 10 years old, I decided that I needed to start dieting.

How Supporting My Sister Taught Me Self-Compassion

February 20, 2019

There are few choice words I would use describe myself: I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a friend, a Pinterest enthusiast, a well-intentioned but awful plant mom. And I am a frequent client to my therapist because I have depression. Sometimes it feels like that last descriptor overshadows the other parts of my identity. Without the appropriate help, it consumed me as a young person who had lacked a real sense of identity. Being a loving daughter, a guiding sister, or a good friend always took a back seat.

Why the Egg Matters

By Paul Gionfriddo, MHA President and CEO, and Madeline Reinert, MHA Policy and Programs Associate

A little more than a month ago, a picture of a brown egg found its way to Instagram. Its original purpose was both straightforward and tongue-in-cheek – to set a record for the greatest number of “likes” of an Instagram post, using an everyday image that had no earthly reason to attract a following of its own. The old record was 18 million.

Why Mental Health Screenings Should Be a Regular Part of Cancer Care

By Catherine Reynolds, MHA Communications Associate

When we think about cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, we don’t wait years to treat them. We work to address these conditions before Stage 4. We begin with prevention. And when people are in the first stage of those diseases, and have a persistent cough, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar, we try immediately to reverse these symptoms.

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