For a lot of us right now, the world feels like it’s been turned on its head. Life as we know it stopped sometime back in March when the coronavirus became a reality in Iowa, and has yet to go back to normal. Even now, with talk of lifting some restrictions on a national and state level, we don’t really know what that will look like. It probably won’t be life as we knew it for quite some time.
The unknown can be scary for children as well as adults. What we do know, however, is that while these current times can be sources of stress or triggers for trauma, especially for those who already struggle with mental health diagnoses, they can also be times to foster resilience and growth. We can emerge from this pandemic more resilient than we went into it.
May is Mental Health Awareness month. As part of our efforts to highlight the importance of mental health, we are bringing you a four part podcast in which we discuss four indicators of well-being. We can look for and foster these ourselves and our children to help us through turbulent times with our mental health intact. The indicators come from the RISE: Wellness & Resilience Framework™ we use.
The RISE framework was developed by Vice President of Clinical Services Tonya Hotchkin. The four indicators are safety, belonging and connection, meaning and purpose, and efficacy. Each podcast focuses on one indicator, explaining what it is in detail and providing ways to encourage its development.
Our goal is to help you and your family be as mentally healthy as possible — something we all need help with from time to time. With that in mind, we also want to help you recognize when you or someone close to you should contact a mental health professional. There is never any shame in doing so. We have many skilled clinicians at Tanager Place who are currently providing telehealth.
Your mental health is important to us. There are practical things we all can do to develop our resilience. We hope you tune in to our podcasts.
Use the player below to listen to our first episode on Stitcher:
