Maureen Dunleavy, the Regional Vice President of the Guidance Care Center, an organization that has locations all over the Keys, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM this morning to talk about mental health.
The Guidance Care Center is celebrating their 52nd year in the Florida Keys.
Dunleavy said, “We have four sites throughout everything from Key West to Key Largo. We also have a lot of different services available to help with all mental health and substance abuse needs.”
We’re changing the clocks this weekend and that can cause additional stress.
Dunleavy said, “On one hand, turning the clocks back means we’re going to have more darkness, and that can always affect people’s moods, but it’s an extra hour of sleep which is a good tool to be able to help cope with stress, is to make sure you’re getting your eight hours of sleep a night to help deal with that. Holidays can be stressful with family, but it’s also a wonderful time to connect with other people, which is a protective measure for our mental health.”
Sleep is critical for our mental health.
Dunleavy said, “Our mental health is as important as our physical health. We’ve talked about on here before that we all have mental health, and mental health is managed. So we don’t cure mental health issues like depression and anxiety, we learn to manage them over the course of our lifetime, and sleeping and making sure we get enough sleep is one tool to help to preserve and take care of our mental health, just like we would our physical health when we talk about how we eat or exercise, and those things also contribute to helping us deal with stressors and help us manage our mental health.”
What other mental health tools are available?
Dunleavy said, “We have lots of tools in the in the toolkit. Certainly Guidance Care Center provides a lot of supports. But what I want listeners to think about is that there are a lot of free things that we can do to take care of ourselves and manage our mental health. We’re in November now. Hard to believe it’s November 1. This is the month of Thanksgiving, and so that gives us the opportunity to really pay attention to the things that we’re grateful for. Now that can seem like well, okay, well, that’s the end of the month and whatever else. But think about this, when you have 10 good things and one bad thing happened to you, what do you usually call people and talk to them about? Always the one bad thing, right? So we actually can train our brains to look for the positive things that are going on in our life and gratitude and that actually can help us to feel better, cope with stress and preserve our mental health. So I mean, that’s something really simple that everybody can pay attention to throughout the course of each day is trying to highlight, think about those things that they’re grateful for, amongst all the stressors, I mean, this also can be a very stressful month. We still are in hurricane season. We’ve got an election coming up, we’ve got the holidays to plan for, and maybe some travel. All those things can be stressful, so having tools to be able to deal with those stressors is just going to help us to feel better.”
Looking at the glass half full really can help.
Dunleavy said, “We can train our brains to look for those positive things. Now, for some people, they may say, well, that sounds silly. It’s not going to make a difference, but it makes a huge difference in how we walk through life. Again mental health is managed, so if we have things that we’re worried about or that we’re sad about, highlighting those things that are going well, that we’re grateful for, that are positive, and really training our brain to look at life that way, through that lens, can really help to manage our mental health.”
What is the mission of the Guidance Care Center?
Dunleavy said, “If you get to the point to where you’re trying to manage your mental health, and you’re struggling with having thoughts of ending your life, not seeing a way out, or it’s really impacting your ability to go to work or to your relationships or school. There are a lot of tools that we offer as well to be able to manage mental health, so we do everything from prevention and outreach. We have psychiatric services at all of our sites, because sometimes medication can be a tool, not a permanent tool, but to help to manage to get through those difficult times, working with a therapist or a counselor to help practice some of the things that we’re talking about, like retraining your brain and cognitive behavioral therapy with changing the way you think. Then also we have more intensive services, like a crisis stabilization unit, which is short term care, if people are feeling suicidal and the only detox in the Keys as well. All of our services can be accessed through our main number, which is 305-434-7660, or people can walk in. But I also want to remind everybody that we have a 24 hour behavioral health crisis line available to all residents, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that if you are in crisis, we will help to connect you to those services. We will actually go out to where you are if you need that. That’s accessible through the main number 305-434-7660, and as soon as the script starts, you press option 8. The script has all of the services and sites of the Guidance Care Center. So if you’re not sure which program you’re trying to reach, you can listen to the script and it will prompt you. If you’re in crisis, you do not need to listen to the script. You can automatically hit eight, and it will connect you to a live person.”
The holidays can be a very happy and warm time for many of us, but it also can be a tremendously difficult time for others.
Dunleavy said, “Especially if people are going through grief or have had a loss this year. So something as simple as just checking in on someone, sending them a text, seeing how they’re doing, it can be life saving. We’ve talked a lot about people who start to feel like they can’t see a way out. They are thinking of ending their life. They’re thinking of suicide. Connecting with other people and with our community is a way to help protect our mental health. So it doesn’t have to be as grandiose as a huge holiday celebration. It really can just be simple as connecting via text, talking to someone, going to an event. We’ve got a lot of events coming up in Key West. The holiday parade is one of my favorite things that will be coming up the week after Thanksgiving. Just going out and being amongst the other residents and experiencing that can really help your mental health.”
Guidance Care services are offered to everyone.
Dunleavy said, “We don’t turn anyone away for an inability to pay, and the crisis number is free, so please do not hesitate to reach out. Income is not a requirement for our services.”
For more information, click here: https://www.guidancecarecenter.org/