An Ounce of Prevention for the New Year

Vista Hill SmartCare partners with rural health clinics, working closely with your doctors, to provide preventative mental health services in support of your overall well being.  We also bring requested Wellness events and activities to your community, which enhance healthy life choices.

Last week I posted a wonderful “strength based” approach to looking at New Year’s Resolutions on our Facebook page entitled,  Reflecting on Basic Goodness: An Alternative to the New Year’s Resolution  by Richard J. Davidson.  He encourages us to reflect on the possibility of strengthening or nurturing those parts of yourself that reflect your basic goodness instead of focusing on a behavior we wish to change or habit we may not like.

This rang true to me, as we know that encouraging positive replacement behaviors in those wishing to decrease or eliminate unhealthy behaviors can be more successful than just trying to extinguish the unhealthy behaviors alone, just as recognizing and rewarding positive behaviors in our children has a more positive effect than scolding them for their negative behaviors.

And so, we at Vista Hill SmartCare are taking this to heart as we review this past year: looking at those Wellness Activities that have been positively received, which interventions have had successful outcomes, which requests continue to come in, and which collaborative partnerships have sustained, and are building on these successes as we plan for the coming months.

Our focus is “prevention”, and what better way than to offer Parenting classes to parents that request them, rather than to those who are “mandated” to attend?  We look forward to continued success with both the STEP curriculum for parents of children age 6-12 and adolescents, as well as the Abriendo Puertas ("Opening Doors") curriculum for parents of children 0 -5.

We have realized that so many pregnant and new mothers are isolated and are at risk for prenatal and postpartum depression; we are excited to partner with North County Health Services, Ramona to begin a weekly educational and support group to these women.

We are eager to continue to encourage positive character traits such as Respect, Responsibility, Citizenship and Caring through the Ramona Unified School District’s Character Education program.

Stress, anxiety and chronic pain are high on the list for so many of the patients that come through our clinics.  We look forward to increasing our ability to provide stress reduction, mindfulness and pain management interventions to our patients.

We also look forward to our continued partnerships and collaborations with our local school districts, Elizabeth Hospice, Palomar Pomerado Health, San Diego County Health & Human Services, Head Start and others as we address Bereavement, Childhood Obesity, Elder Safety and other pressing wellness needs and concerns in the communities that we serve.

And as always, we invite your suggestions and comments for future Wellness Events and Activities.  760.788.9725