Mental Health Checkups

The Most Important Part of Health: Your Mind

What currently separates mental health from general medicine?

Regular checkups.

And why do we do this? Why should a completely healthy person go in and have the doctor give them the once over?

It's not just because it's in keeping with good health, it's because getting checked by the doctor can potentially catch something that could become a larger problem if not diagnosed early.

This is even more true with mental health problems.

The danger here is that these mental health problems will also cause physical health problems: hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease. These conditions are all either caused by or made worse by not taking care of mental health problems. There is absolutely no reason to neglect your mind. It is by far the most important organ in your body

Key Advantages to Routine Mental Health Checkups For Everyone

* Get ahead of mental health problems before they take root and cause unnecessary suffering.

* Promoting mental fitness contributes immensely to avoiding preventable physical health problems such as heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, hypertension, cancer, insomnia, diabetes, and so on.

* Regular checkups help keep your propensity for happiness in optimal condition, so you can enjoy the best that life has to offer.

* Keeping up with mental fitness contributes to better focus, cognition, memory, mood, productivity, and more overall enjoyment of life.

* Catching mental illness early is much less costly and much easier to deal with therapeutically than fighting problems once they are
fully developed.

* Among teens with current suicidal ideation or any history of suicide attempt, screening identified 82% of those missed by school professionals.

* Only 1.6% of suicidal teens identified by TeenScreen who also met criteria for a clinical diagnosis are already in treatment with a mental health professional. The rest are left untreated.

* On average, symptoms of mental illness appear 3 to 4 years before a full psychiatric diagnosis is warranted. This means that we have a giant window of opportunity to stop the development of mental illness in its tracks.

Shocking Statistics of Failing to Stay Ahead of Your Mental Health

* Screening can identify 100% of teens who are at the highest risk for suicide.

* 90% of parents are not aware that their child has made a suicide attempt.

* 4 out of 5 people with fully diagnosable mental health conditions are receiving no services whatsoever.

* Among teens with recent suicidal ideation or a history of suicide attempt(s), 40% were identified via screening only in contrast to only 9% identified by school staff only. That is a significant portion of kids who are slipping by unnoticed.

A Critical Aspect of Overall Health

There is an area where today's psychology lags behind the rest of medicine: regular checkups. Regular medical checkups help to make sure that nothing is physically wrong with your body. This is an important aspect of overall health. Mental health checkups is even more important. Stress, anxiety, and depression can lead to various physical problems such as cardiovascular conditions, drug and alcohol abuse, and heart disease, the number one killer in America.

Waiting until it is too late can be a critical mistake. Don't wait until you are suicidal or have developed serious medical problems to seek mental health treatment. Prevention is only a matter of being proactive.

A growing body of research proves that mental health checkups is an integral part in achieving overall health, and contributes in a powerful way to life satisfaction. Don't ignore your mind, it is the most important part of YOU. The best Dallas counseling therapists realize the importance of your mind, and Pursuit of Happiness takes mental health very seriously.

Pursuit of Happiness is an official partner with University of Columbia's Teen Screen program. Contact us on the form to the right to let us know your specific need. Our clinicians are mobile, and can be available at your site, whether it be a company, school, church, or any other organization.

Every organization below strongly recommends regular mental health checkups:

For Your Schools

Whether your needs are for our staff to come to your school, or have referrals letters sent home to the student body, Pursuit of Happiness is flexible enough to suit your particular situation. With mental health checkups, problems can be identified early, which will lessen their propensity to act out later in life. This will keep your student body out of detentions, and in the classroom learning where they belong.

Pursuit of Happiness has developed a 24 question proprietary assessment tool, the Teen Symptom Audit - TSA-1, and the Child Symptom Audit - CSA-1, to quickly scan for problem areas. This valuable tool enables children to be assessed quickly, and for proper recommendations to be made.

For Your Business

The mental health of your employees is a huge factor in their productivity. Sometimes, personal life stuff happens outside the office. If an employee is suffering from stress, they will lose motivation, burn out faster, and lose focus which leads to less productivity.

Regular mental health checkups can ensure that your employees are firing on all cylinders and identify problems before they become problematic and costly. In addition, as an employer it ensures that your team will operate at optimal levels while retaining higher levels of satisfaction.

Our proprietary assessment tool is tailored specifically for business. The Workplace Symptom Audit - WSA-1 is a tool that can quickly scan for problems from which appropriate recommendations can be made. The WSA-1 is unique in that it can be tweaked to meet your company's specific needs.

For Your Organization

No matter how large or small your organization, Pursuit of Happiness is a dedicated ally who can make sure that your organization's members are not suffering from mental illness. Happier people are more committed to the cause. They are the enablers of your organization's growth. Partnering with Pursuit of Happiness will ensure that problems are caught before they become problematic.

For Your church

Mental health checkups can be a wonderful way to keep the membership of your church population in tip top shape. Happy church goers are motivated church goers, and motivated church goers love reaching out and offering a helping hand. With Pursuit of Happiness checkups, you can make certain that your membership is operating optimally. Mental health checkups will identify problems before they become so big that a member is too depressed to get out of bed to come to church. It never has to get that far. And with Pursuit of Happiness, it won't.

We offer the Spiritual Symptom Audit: CSA-1 to quickly determine whether more care is needed.

For Primary Care Physicians

Why ignore the most vital part of human health? Infirmary of the mind can lead to various physical ailments. Partnering with Pursuit of Happiness enables your clinic to be able to offer comprehensive healthcare, backed by scores of research as well as a presidential appointed committee. The ability to offer your patients health and happiness is the gold standard for total well being. Screening for potential mental health conditions is a considerable tool in the achievement of overall health.

For All

People of all ages can benefit from making sure your mental health is tuned optimally. It's never too early, and it's never too late. Don't neglect the most vital component of your life. Take a stand before things get out of control. Be proactive about your mental health, which in turn will profoundly influence your life's fidelity, satisfaction, and universal happiness.

The Adult Symptom Audit: ASA-1 is a proprietary research tool developed by our organization that can quickly scan for issues. This preventative measure can find problems before they develop into larger issues, a critical tool in fighting against mental health problems.

Is Anyone Important Recommending Mental Health Checkups? Glad You Asked.

* The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force published a report in March 2008 calling for annual depression screening for all 12-18 year olds in primary care settings. They go on to say that screening effectively identifies depression in adolescents and that available treatments are effective for this population.

* In February 2009, The National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine published a report calling for evidence-based mental health screenings for adolescents in school, community, and primary care settings.

* Two reports from the U.S. Surgeon General, David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., highlighted mental health screening as an effective method of youth suicide prevention.

* A 2003 report from the President’s New Freedom Commision on Mental Health emphasized early mental health screening as a goal for the nation and placed a high priority on the implementation of voluntary school-based screening programs.

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Mental Health Screenings

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