“Be The Change” is a slogan that floats around the Allina Health System as part of an effort to eliminate stigma around mental health and addiction conditions. This effort aims to specifically shift the mindset of employees and help them become more aware of stigmas they have for the patients they face on a daily basis. Through addressing stigmas and making small changes, employees help create an improved, person-centered care experience and increase positive outcomes for patients receiving mental health treatment within Allina Health. The effort to address stigma is just one example of how mental health care is being improved within Allina Health and across the nation.
As a dietetic intern at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, MN, I got to dig even deeper into mental health and begin addressing nutrition as a component of person-centered care with adolescent and adult mental health patients. In collaboration with the mental health services department, the nutrition services department began hosting nutrition group sessions with an outpatient adolescent program. Like any health condition. addressing only medications would leave the health puzzle incomplete. Thus, nutrition sessions contribute toward improved wellbeing and teach coping skills for the real-world.
At Abbott Northwestern, the adolescent partial day program (PDP) consists of a month-long psychiatrist-directed group therapy program that helps adolescents get the support they need to heal in the community while maintaining participation in school. Group therapy aims to increase self-awareness, improve coping skills, increase emotional regulation, and develop interpersonal effectiveness. I was able to develop educational lessons for the adolescent partial hospitalization day program (PDP) and present them to small groups. Student small groups engaged in nutrition sessions to learn about “healthy and unhealthy eating” and why reading food labels matters. Further, inpatient adult mental health patients are beginning to have nutrition group sessions to dig into nutrition as a component of self-care and community engagement.
Early research has shown that diet can have an impact on our mood and mental health. In addition, the environment in which we eat has proven to have an impact on our body and mood as we might more commonly notice in developing children. More recently, research is plentiful and has certainly shown that what we eat can and does impact our mental health. Adult patients will dig into intuitive eating, mindful eating, the gut microbiome, and learn new recipes and cooking skills.
Allina Health is not the only care system making efforts to improve mental health care. Another member of my intern cohort, Allie McNulty, helped spearhead nutrition classes for mental health patients at her facility in New York. In her case, these classes and specific population launched her into a new job as a registered dietitian continuing the work she started. If you are an upcoming or current intern, I encourage you to consider implementing nutrition education for mental health patients and explore this growing field, because mental health matters. For more information on how you can get involved visit NAMI.org to help millions of Americans who face mental illness every day.
As a dietetic intern at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, MN, I got to dig even deeper into mental health and begin addressing nutrition as a component of person-centered care with adolescent and adult mental health patients. In collaboration with the mental health services department, the nutrition services department began hosting nutrition group sessions with an outpatient adolescent program. Like any health condition. addressing only medications would leave the health puzzle incomplete. Thus, nutrition sessions contribute toward improved wellbeing and teach coping skills for the real-world.
At Abbott Northwestern, the adolescent partial day program (PDP) consists of a month-long psychiatrist-directed group therapy program that helps adolescents get the support they need to heal in the community while maintaining participation in school. Group therapy aims to increase self-awareness, improve coping skills, increase emotional regulation, and develop interpersonal effectiveness. I was able to develop educational lessons for the adolescent partial hospitalization day program (PDP) and present them to small groups. Student small groups engaged in nutrition sessions to learn about “healthy and unhealthy eating” and why reading food labels matters. Further, inpatient adult mental health patients are beginning to have nutrition group sessions to dig into nutrition as a component of self-care and community engagement.
Early research has shown that diet can have an impact on our mood and mental health. In addition, the environment in which we eat has proven to have an impact on our body and mood as we might more commonly notice in developing children. More recently, research is plentiful and has certainly shown that what we eat can and does impact our mental health. Adult patients will dig into intuitive eating, mindful eating, the gut microbiome, and learn new recipes and cooking skills.
Allina Health is not the only care system making efforts to improve mental health care. Another member of my intern cohort, Allie McNulty, helped spearhead nutrition classes for mental health patients at her facility in New York. In her case, these classes and specific population launched her into a new job as a registered dietitian continuing the work she started. If you are an upcoming or current intern, I encourage you to consider implementing nutrition education for mental health patients and explore this growing field, because mental health matters. For more information on how you can get involved visit NAMI.org to help millions of Americans who face mental illness every day.
