IWAH Psychiatry, 4806 E Camp Lowell Drive, Tucson, AZ (2025)

06/15/2022

Come join us for a virtual webinar on mind-body skills for self care on Tuesday, June 21st, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Arizona time at the 2022 Connections Conference with Mercy Care Arizona.

The event is free to the public, and you would need to register to get the link for the webinar. You can do so at: https://www.mercycareaz.org/event.

Come attend if you have some time, and please share the event page link with anyone who can benefit from having more self-care in their lives.

There are handouts that go with the event, and they are free to download at the same event page link.

See you there!

05/24/2021

Mental Health Crisis in Foster Care

There are over four hundred thousand children in the foster system. The system is made up of not only the foster children and their foster families, but also the social workers, government agencies, and mental and physical healthcare workers who work together towards a goal of ensuring a supportive and nurturing environment for foster involved youth.

Often children placed in foster care have complex histories of trauma informed by abuse, neglect and witnessing interpersonal violence. This combined with difficult family situations has resulted in up to 80 percent of children in foster care having significant mental health issues.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Healthy Foster Care American Initiative, identifies mental and behavioral health as the “greatest unmet health need for children and teens in foster care.”

Sometimes medications are warranted to combat these negative effects. However, a huge impact can be made with teaching children basic coping skills and fostering positive self-image. Our goal should always be to support resiliency and help children live healthy and full lives.

To learn more and become involved, please click on the references below.

References:
https://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/mental-health-and-foster-care.aspx
https://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth/about/
https://www.safy.org/mental-health-among-children-in-foster-care/

05/20/2021

Asian-Pacific Contributions to Mental Health

May is both Mental Health Awareness Month as well as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. In the spirit of honoring both of these causes, we are looking at Asian-Pacific practices that contribute to better mental health. All of these traditions have a focus on the mind and body as one and the person as a whole. This is similar to the mental health practitioner’s biopsychosocial approach, which takes into account a person’s physical health, psychological health, and social support.

Here are some practices that have roots in ancient history but are practiced throughout the world to improve personal health:

**Yoga is believed to have originated in India via the sage Patanjali,
and is now practiced throughout the world in various forms.
**Ho’oponopono comes from the Kahuna traditions of the
Hawaiian islands and focuses on conflict resolution.
**Sand gardens are a calming Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition
which aid mindfulness.
**Chi Gong is part of Chinese movement tradition focusing on life
energy and flow within the body.
**Latihan is an active movement meditation associated with the
Javanese kejawan tradition.

Since we’re midway through the month of May, why not try one of these practices from our Asian-Pacific cultures, and positively shift your mental health?

05/12/2021

Limiting Screen Time

May 3rd through May 9th was Screen-Free Week, where individuals and families commit to stopping or limiting screen use for an entire week. You may be wondering, why limit screen use, especially in the middle of a pandemic, when social media and screens seem to be part of our new “normal” in terms of socializing, working, and school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends for children not to exceed a total of 2 hours per day with a screen across all screens -- TVs, phones, tablets, and computers. When looking at the available research, increased screen time has some very negative consequences, such as:

**Worsened sleep
**Difficulty concentrating
**Poorer physical health (lowered bone density, more sedentary, etc)
**Difficulty with emotional regulation and social skills.

Let’s be honest, it might be difficult to go screen free for an entire week. However, looking at the consequences, some actions need to be taken. In conjunction with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, we recommend:

**Firm boundaries and limits when it comes to the amount of screen time
**Engage in more off-screen activities, such as being outside, reading books, family conversations or game nights. We’d recommend at least 5-10 hours a week.
**Have a solid bed-time routine and structure to help with sleep.
**Keep all screen-related devices limited to one to two rooms for the entire family. Example: living room and kitchen.
**Turn off all screens during family meals and outings.
**Learn about and use parental controls.
**Avoid using screens as pacifiers, babysitters, or to stop tantrums.
**Turn off screens and remove them from bedrooms 30-60 minutes before bedtime.

For more ideas of screen free activities and exploring the concept of a weekly screen free day, check out https://www.screenfree.org/

05/06/2021

May is Mental Health Awareness month and the first week of May is specifically designated for National Children’s Mental Health Awareness. So many of the health problems seen in adults begin in childhood. In fact, there is a large body of research exploring adverse childhood experiences and their relationship to diabetes, heart disease, addiction, and mental health disorders.

In 1995, 17,337 participants were recruited from Kaiser Permanente patients by researchers to understand the effects of childhood trauma and abuse on adult healthcare outcomes. The participants were asked a set of ten questions covering the following areas of childhood experience:

Experiencing physical abuse
Experiencing sexual abuse
Being subjected to emotional abuse
Being physically neglected
Experiencing emotional neglect
Exposure to domestic violence
Household substance abuse
Household mental illness
Experiencing parental separation or divorce
Having an incarcerated household member

The findings were extremely sobering. Adverse childhood experiences led to social, emotional and cognitive impairments as children grew into adulthood. Many of these children adopted risky behaviors as a coping response to trauma, which often resulted in disease, disability and social problems in their growing years. If no interventions were offered, the negative effects of these adverse childhood experiences frequently resulted in poor quality of life and early death.

So how can we help?

There are several ways to help. First and foremost, check in on the children in your lives, talk with them and find out what they are experiencing and make sure they are safe.

Second, connect children with resources. School counselors are specifically trained to work with children and can help children process events and aid with behaviors in the school setting. Also, there are therapists who work with children and specialize in processing trauma. They can help children find healthy and appropriate coping skills that replace risky behaviors.

Finally, there are medical professionals, such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, who have extensive training to work with children, both to process trauma as well as to use medication (if needed).

In short, if we prevent adverse childhood events and teach healthier coping skills, we can follow in the steps of the ACE Nashville group in shifting the conversation from Adverse Childhood Experiences to All Children Excel.

For More Information:
ACES - https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Facestudy%2Fabout.html

Photo Credit: Charles Whitfield, M.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

05/06/2021

May is Mental Health Awareness month and the first week of May is specifically designated for National Children’s Mental Health Awareness. So many of the health problems seen in adults begin in childhood. In fact, there is a large body of research exploring adverse childhood experiences and their relationship to diabetes, heart disease, addiction, and mental health disorders.

In 1995, 17,337 participants were recruited from Kaiser Permanente patients by researchers to understand the effects of childhood trauma and abuse on adult healthcare outcomes. The participants were asked a set of ten questions covering the following areas of childhood experience:

Experiencing physical abuse
Experiencing sexual abuse
Being subjected to emotional abuse
Being physically neglected
Experiencing emotional neglect
Exposure to domestic violence
Household substance abuse
Household mental illness
Experiencing parental separation or divorce
Having an incarcerated household member

The findings were extremely sobering. Adverse childhood experiences led to social, emotional and cognitive impairments as children grew into adulthood. Many of these children adopted risky behaviors as a coping response to trauma, which often resulted in disease, disability and social problems in their growing years. If no interventions were offered, the negative effects of these adverse childhood experiences frequently resulted in poor quality of life and early death.

So how can we help?

There are several ways to help. First and foremost, check in on the children in your lives, talk with them and find out what they are experiencing and make sure they are safe.

Second, connect children with resources. School counselors are specifically trained to work with children and can help children process events and aid with behaviors in the school setting. Also, there are therapists who work with children and specialize in processing trauma. They can help children find healthy and appropriate coping skills that replace risky behaviors.

Finally, there are medical professionals, such as Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, who have extensive training to work with children, both to process trauma as well as to use medication (if needed).

In short, if we prevent adverse childhood events and teach healthier coping skills, we can follow in the steps of the ACE Nashville group in shifting the conversation from Adverse Childhood Experiences to All Children Excel.

For More Information:
ACES - https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Facestudy%2Fabout.html

Image Credit: Charles Whitfield, M.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

03/08/2021

A hearty happy International Women’s Day to all women and girls around the world!

International Women’s Day started well over a century ago to mark the activism for equality and equity for women in various social, political and economic spheres.

Today, it continues to be an acknowledgement of the struggle faced by women and girls to achieve full independence and personhood in every country. The day offers opportunities to celebrate milestones achieved in this struggle, as well as to emphasize and reflect on the areas that still require attention and effort to actualize women’s immense potential and contributions to humankind.

The UN focus on this year’s International Women’s Day is: “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” The UN celebrates the impact women and girls have had in the fields of healthcare, caregiving, innovation and community organizing to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The other theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose to Challenge.” This encourages men, women, boys and girls to challenge gender disparities and stereotypes in their cultures.

With this in mind, we thank all the women and girls we know for being the powerful amazing sources of creativity, endurance, and strength for our human family. Thank you all for practicing empowerment!

We invite you to comment below on your positive experiences of women and girls modeling positive values in your own lives. And if you find this post interesting, please share it!

Design Credit: Leonora Howlett, March 12 1975, Australia

03/06/2021

The Empowering Practice:

Let’s face it. With the scope and breadth of problems in the world, most people feel a sense of powerlessness in their life. To counter that feeling, it’s important to develop an empowering practice – that is, a practical, far-reaching method of creating a life of your choosing.

What is an empowering practice? Many components can make up an empowering practice, but here are the main three: freedom, purpose and potential.

FREEDOM
Most people would think that purpose should come first among the three, but in our experience people need to feel like they have the FREEDOM to choose – how they spend their time, energy, and focus. Having the freedom to make choices results in owning the direction of your life.

PURPOSE
Once you realize you have the freedom to choose what you want to do, the next step is defining what is important to you -- in other words what is your PURPOSE. With your goals in mind, you can align your choices to support your purpose in life.

POTENTIAL
With your purpose in hand, now you can reach your POTENTIAL -- maximizing your highest ability. By identifying your strengths and recognizing where you can improve, you can put continuous efforts to reach your highest success in life.

We’d love to hear in the comments how you are taking the next steps in YOUR empowering practice. Please share!

IWAH Psychiatry

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