May is Mental Health Awareness Month

May is a time to raise awareness of those living with mental or behavioral health issues and to help reduce the stigma so many experience. Hospitals and health systems play an important role in providing behavioral health care and helping patients find resources available in their community.

May is a time to raise awareness of those living with mental or behavioral health issues and to help reduce the stigma so many experience.

Hospitals and health systems play an important role in providing behavioral health care and helping patients find resources available in their community. Hospitals create unique partnerships to address behavioral health issues in non-traditional ways. Many of our members are leading innovations in the way behavioral health disorders are identified and treated—through the integration of physical and behavioral health services, changes in their emergency departments and inpatient and outpatient settings, and via community partnerships. These strategies improve the overall value of health care and can lead to improvements in patient outcomes, quality of care and total costs.

The AHA has a long-standing commitment to support these efforts and advocate on issues related to behavioral health. AHA supports the integration of behavioral and physical health and helps hospitals play a key role in establishing partnerships to ensure access to a full continuum of behavioral health care.

AHA Resources

NEW: Child & Adolescent Mental Health and Maternal Mental Health Webpages

These new resources pages are designed to provide information, resources, and best practices to better support hospitals and health systems in addressing child and adolescent mental health and maternal mental health.

Leadership Dialogue Series: Matthew Stanley

On this Leadership Dialogue Series podcast, AHA Board Chair Wright L. Lassiter III is joined by Matthew Stanley, D.O., a psychiatrist and clinical vice president of the behavioral health service line at Avera Health, based in Sioux Falls, S.D. Wright and Dr. Stanley discuss the impact that COVID-19 has had on people’s mental health and new ways to support increased access to behavioral health services across the care continuum.

6 Keys to a Successful Regional Behavioral Health Network

Hospitals and health care systems have a unique opportunity to serve as leaders and conveners of a broad spectrum of community agencies and other community partners to form regional behavioral health care networks to improve access to the right care at the right time and right place. The characteristics of current and emerging regional behavioral health networks across the nation offer insights for other communities interested in improving access to behavioral health services through community partnerships.

Members in Action Case Study: Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health at Hackensack Meridian Health (Hackensack, NJ)

The AHA aims to help hospitals and health systems increase the integration of physical and behavioral health services in acute inpatient, emergency department and primary care. This resource offers an example of how hospitals and health systems can successfully integrate behavioral health into their existing care.

People Matter, Words Matter

The AHA, together with behavioral health and language experts from member hospitals and partner organizations, will release a series of downloadable posters to help your employees adopt patient-centered, respectful language. Please consider downloading, printing and sharing each poster with your team members and encourage them to use this language both in front of patients and when talking to colleagues. People matter and the words we use to describe them or the disorders they have matter.

More Mental Health Awareness Month Resources

Podcasts & Webinars
Podcasts
- De-escalating Workplace Violence in Behavioral Health Settings
- Podcast: Tidelands Health Series : The American Hospital Association has a longstanding commitment to improving access to high quality, affordable treatment services for psychiatric and substance use disorders; commonly referred to has behavioral health disorders. This podcast series will explore one health system’s collaborative work with local and state agencies to collectively improve access to behavioral health care as well as employ preventive steps to reduce the overall need for services.
- Prescribe Safe Initiative Series
- Breaking Down Mental Health: Disparities in Access to Mental Health Services
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center: New Approaches to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
- Rural Report Podcast: Behavioral Health
Webinars
- Webinar: Frameworks and an Innovative Initiative to Advance Well-Being During and After a Pandemic: The National Taskforce for Humanity in Healthcare (NTH) proposes a new model that goes beyond burnout prevention and promotes resiliency and the restoration of humanity in healthcare. During this webinar participants will hear how to move beyond the prevention of burnout, and instead systemically cultivate human thriving and connection in ways that promote resilience, well-being, and joy for all health care team members. Speakers will share lessons learned from deploying the NTH Solutions for Thriving Blueprint.
- Webinar: Mental Health First Aid in Health Care: Helping All of Us be Better Humans: This webinar will provide understanding, resources and strategies on the basics of trauma, recognizing signs and symptoms of common mental health concerns, and how to access appropriate support. Mental health cannot be an afterthought in coping with a pandemic and this webinar will introduce you to basic skills needed to support health care employee wellbeing in this new environment and beyond.
- Video Series: Arizona hospital uses social media to help with behavioral health care during pandemic: Summit Healthcare, a nonprofit medical center in rural Navajo County in Arizona, launched a video series on the hospital's YouTube channel about managing stress during these unprecedented and unnerving times. Read more about the resource that uses a Navajo story to make the resource highly relevant to its audience.
- Webinar Replay: Supporting Clinician Well-Being During COVID-19: This May 7 webinar on supporting clinician well-being during COVID-19, was hosted in partnership with the National Academy of Medicine's Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
- Be the Employer of Choice for Behavioral Health: Lessons from Inova Kellar Center
- The Physician Wellbeing Playbook
- Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care: Atrium Health.
Case Studies
Tools & Resources
- Leading Through Crisis: A Resource Compendium for Nurse Leaders: AONL has developed a compendium of leadership resources to support clinicians in caring for themselves and their teams, including brief exercises for practical tips and effective strategies for coping, staying centered, building resilience and leading with integrity amidst challenging circumstances.
- Case Study: Caring for our Health Care Heroes During Covid-19: This resource focuses on three areas – mental health, food and housing – and features case examples from across the country. It also provides a list of national well-being programs and resources developed for health care workers.
- The Physician Well-Being Playbook
Articles
- Chair File: New Resources for Strong Mental Well-being: May is Mental Health Awareness Month—an opportunity for us all to reflect on the effects COVID-19 has had on our mental health and well-being. The AHA is making this issue a priority and supporting the field on a number of fronts.
- AHA Blog: Meeting behavioral health needs of seniors during COVID-19: Brent Forester, M.D., chief of the Center of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, discusses how and why we should pay special attention to older Americans who may be suffering from COVID-19, separated from loved ones or lost important routines.
- Chairman’s File: AHA Board Chair Brian Gragnolati on Behavioral Health
- Technology in behavioral health care: Expanding access, improving quality
- It’s time to increase access to behavioral health care