Navy Medicine East is focused on increasing awareness of psychological and emotional health among service members, veterans, family members and caregivers during the month of May in support of National Mental Health Awareness Month.
NME’s health care facilities–across the eastern hemisphere–are using this opportunity to provide tools and resources to help patients better understand access to care and to promote availability treatment options with the goal of building resilience.
“We have the tools to help patients understand the treatments to help Sailors, Marines and our family members stay or become emotionally healthy to ensure mission readiness,” said Capt. Gail H. Manos, senior mental health executive, Navy Medicine East. “We need to remove the stigma associated with mental health conditions, related care options, and help our patients understand that getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness.”
In many cases mental health illnesses are not only treatable, but also preventable. There are several avenues to help those who are living with these psychological health concerns and conditions, from talking to primary care managers to visiting the local chaplain or Fleet and Family Support Centers.
Military life and its associated experiences can be especially challenging causing many service members and their families to experience various levels of stress. People can experience different types of mental health problems, from their thoughts, feelings, behaviors and even mood. It can be tasking on someone’s physical health from lack of sleep or energy to stress.
There’s a wide range of mental health support, including inpatient treatments that provide counseling and care for emotional, behavioral, or mental health crisis, to outpatient treatments with psychiatrists and psychologists to licensed professional counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists that are committed to giving the best mental health care to patients.
Deployment Health Centers and services offer Sailors and Marines a way to navigate that stress before, during, and after deployments. It consists of tailor-made activities and is a continuous process that screens, identifies and treats throughout deployment to enhance readiness.
NME oversees the delivery of medical, dental and other health care services to approximately one million patients across almost 100 facilities—including the Tidewater Military Health System which brings together McDonald Army Health Center, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and U.S. Air Force Hospital Langley. Plus, its public health activities extend globally. For more information, visit www.med.navy.mil/sites/nme.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2017 10:05 |
| Story ID: | 234449 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 157 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Navy Medicine East stresses pursuit of mental health a sign of strength, by CPO Stephane Belcher, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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