Thanksgiving is good for your mental health

We're talking about the state of mind, rather than the holiday!

Many studies have found correlations between gratitude and physical and emotional health--for both adults and adolescents. People who are highly grateful are less likely to be anxious, depressed, or aggressive than less grateful people.

What's more, deliberate actions of gratitude can cultivate better mental health. In a classic study, research subjects who wrote daily journals focused on appreciation had better emotional outcomes than those who wrote about hassles or about neutral subjects.

Try one of these proven ways to build thankfulness:

Keep a gratitude list.
Thank yourself every evening for three things you did during the day.
Write a note to someone who did you a kindness, recently or in the past.
Meditate on your blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at The REACH Institute!

REACH in the news

DocWire News interviewed REACH faculty member Rachel Petersen-Nguyen, MD, about ADHD and depression.
A Newsweek article on evidence-based treatments for anxiety quoted REACH trainer Wendy Silverman, PhD.
Liz Wallis, MD, another REACH faculty member, offered advice to parents in a Fortune article on counteracting harmful TikTok messages about dieting and body image.

Thanks to the support of generous sponsors, we offered scholarships this fall to clinicians in low-income communities.

Scholarships covered full tuition for Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care for clinicians in the greater Atlanta area.
Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield Corporate sponsored scholarships for our course Adult Behavioral Health in Primary Care.

Every donation and partnership helps us train more clinicians in low-income communities to diagnose and treat mental health conditions.

Last chance for Adult Behavioral Health in Primary Care!

Don't miss the last chance in 2022 to learn how to diagnose and treat common mental health conditions in adults! In three days of interactive learning followed by regular case-based cohort sessions, participants in Adult Behavioral Health in Primary Care learn to:

Identify common conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder
Create and implement a treatment plan
Manage psychopharmacology

We still have a few seats open for the virtual session on December 4-6.

2023 trainings

We're excited to offer our first in-person sessions of Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care in nearly three years!

March 17 to 19, West Palm Beach
September 29 to October 1, Houston

We also continue to offer virtual sessions:

January 27 to 29
April 28 to 30
July 28 to 30
November 3 to 5

Registration is open now for all sessions.

Prefer to learn at your own pace? We've got you! Try one of our asynchronous online classes:

See all REACH Institute trainings

After you screen for anxiety, then what?

The US Preventative Service Task Force (USPSTF) recently issued draft guidelines recommending that primary care providers (PCPs) screen all adults aged 19 to 64 for anxiety disorders. Guidelines recommending anxiety screening for children aged 8 to 18 have also been finalized.

Anxiety is an enormous problem among both adults and children--more so since the pandemic. To help PCPs figure out what to do after they conduct the recommended screening, we talked to Patty Gibson, MD, a psychiatrist who serves on the faculty for our course Adult Behavioral Health in Primary Care. She suggested evidence-based strategies for helping patients cope with anxiety. Hint: Medication is often not the first line of defense.

Read all about it on our blog

A note from our CEO

Lisa Hunter Romanelli, PhD

CEO, The REACH Institute

The REACH Institute is grateful for you! At this moment, I'm grateful that you read all the way down to the bottom of our email. We appreciate that you spend your valuable time with our messages and our work.

People have many reasons for engaging with The REACH Institute. You may be an alum, or maybe you are a parent who attended a webinar. Maybe you're alarmed about the epidemic of mental illness in this country.

Whatever your specific reason, the larger motivation probably involves your care for kids and families. We're grateful to have you as partners in the vital work of improving access to quality mental health care. Thank you!

The REACH Institute | Website