Stacey Burroughs, our Behavioral Health Coordinator, is hard at work bring mental health into our daily conversations about health. She’s working on integrating behavioral health into the workplace and our patients lives. Take a look at a note she sent out to our staff recently talking about where we’re going.
Thanks Stacey for being such a champion for open discussion and acceptance! Learn more about what we’re doing here.
The door to mental health is open in this country. We’ve realized that one door isn’t enough and not everyone will come through the front door. So we’re rapidly building more doors, with entry points through the side, the back, and even through the basement. We know these entry ways as the judicial system, the public school system, and primary care. That’s where you come in.
Each of us has a unique opportunity in our role to hang up a welcome sign, and to convey in our words and actions that Family First Health is a safe place for patients and staff members to speak frankly about all aspects of health and wellness, including mental health. We are charged with normalizing conversations about mood, safety, trauma, substance use, memory, and brain health. We have hope today that stigma around behavioral health will be reduced, and eventually cease to exist. Not so long ago, there was great stigma attached to conditions like epilepsy, and intellectual disability. Stigma is almost always based in misinformation and misconception. As we bring topics into the light of conversation, we understand the conditions and one another at a deeper level.
Brain and behavioral health is as relevant to every one of us as oral health, heart health, and reproductive health. Let’s continue to create a culture of safety for our patients and colleagues by inviting conversations, and always keeping our doors open.