Art Therapy

Can We Live Longer?

"Walking Machine"

Today we introduced a new treadmill for clients. One delightedly commented, "Oh, a walking machine!" This client has been trying to increase his walking at the strong suggestion of his primary care provider. Now clients are using the treadmill anywhere from 1-20 minutes daily.

Satisfaction Survey Results

Well, the results are in! Six CHD Health & Wellness enrollees have completed their anonymous six-month satisfaction questionnaires. Results indicate that all six enrollees are very satisfied with the majority of the program. For instance, they are very satisfied with their primary care providers, their care managers, their overall medical care, and their individual wellness programs. One client indicates that s/he is only mostly satisfied with the timeliness of her/his visits, the variety of wellness programming and the facilities, or physical space in which the primary care visits are conducted. All in all, CHD Health & Wellness staff is pleased with the results of this survey of a handful of enrollees who have reached the six-month mark. But, they also realize there is much work yet to be done.

(Source: Survey completed by six enrollees who have been enrolled for at least 6 months)

Sustaining Wellness Programs

Wellness-related programming. Our care managers (with the assistance of the advisory group) have implemented the following wellness programs: healthy eating and cooking classes, yoga, Zumba, Latin and ballroom dance, “Walk with a Doc,” therapeutic laughter and writing groups, chronic disease self-management program, gardening club (for growing herbs with which to cook), diabetes management and cognitive/sensory processing workshops.

Barriers to accomplishments. One barrier to implementing the wellness programs is that they are non-billable and therefore harder to make sustainable.

Actions to overcome difficulties. In order to make the wellness programs sustainable, it is the goal of our integrated services program to have these programmatic offerings be budget neutral. However, fundraisers for the wellness programs are also planned as a way to generate revenue needed to fund these non-billable programs. Fundraisers included a dine-out for a cause event at a local restaurant and a 5K race/walk. All funds generated from these events are tracked separately and earmarked for underwriting wellness programs. Another source of wellness programming revenue is regularly provided by a private donor.

A final method of ensuring sustainability is through the provision of billable groups by care managers who are licensed. For instance, this past quarter one LICSW began offering a billable therapeutic writing group.

Care Managers: A New Professional Role

Care managers in integrated service programs function in a hybrid fashion combining community mental health case management and medical case management. This hybrid form of case management involves not only the coordination of community services for seriously mentally ill clients but also a collaborative process with medical providers to facilitate recommended treatment plans to assure appropriate medical care is provided. As is the case with all types of case management, the care managers’ tasks include assessment of need, care planning, implementation and regular review. Their case management is clinical, or therapeutic, in nature, requiring that they establish therapeutic relationships with their clients and that they are actively involved in their clinical care. They also evaluate clients’ medical conditions, coordinate medical resources, communicate healthcare needs to clients, monitor their progress and promote cost-effective care.

Love Your Body

In honor of “Love Your Body Day”, which is the campaign of the National Organization for Women (NOW), our new CHD Health & Wellness art therapy intern led a group of clients in a class designed to create images of oneself, noting what each of them liked (or better yet, loved) about themself. The images were hung on a newly decorated bulletin board at our clinic. Clients were encouraged to keep adding new images to the board during the month of October. Upon seeing the hearts all over the board, one client inquired, “What is this; Valentine’s Day?” This provided a perfect opportunity for our intern to explain what the significance of the day was and what clients were in the process of doing.

According to NOW, ‘“Love Your Body Day” is a day when women of all sizes, colors, ages and abilities come together to celebrate self-acceptance and promote positive body image’.

To learn more about “Love Your Body Day”, visit: http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/index.html.