Levels of Mental Health Care
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Ahmad is dealing with many stressors: finances, learning English, and painful memories from his journey to the United States. Ahmad meets with his doctor and shares about how these difficulties are affecting his health – causing headaches, backpain, and difficulty sleeping.
His doctor suggests that Ahmad meet with a therapist. Ahmad has never been in therapy before, and thinks it is strange that his doctor would suggest this, but he agrees and starts meeting weekly with this therapist. In therapy he starts learning strategies to help him manage his emotions. He begins to experience peace with painful memories, and to feel strong in facing challenges. After seven months of working with the therapist, Ahmad is feeling much healthier and decides to end his therapy. His therapist shares that Ahmad can re-start therapy any time he would like additional support.
Therapy
Therapy is a type of health care in which you focus not just on your physical health, but also the health of your emotions, habits, and relationships. It may seem strange at first to speak with a counselor about your issues, but the counselor will do their best to make you feel comfortable and safe. Many people benefit from this type of health care!
A counselor can focus on many different types of issues and will allow you to choose what you want to discuss. They will want to understand what goals you have, to empower and encourage you to feel capable in dealing with your current challenges. They may do this by teaching you strategies for dealing with stress or helping think about new ways to respond to your problems. Generally, they will support you to improve your thoughts, feelings, habits, and relationships.
What you can expect:
Typically, weekly meetings
Could be in-person at the therapists’ office, or a private video call
Interpretation is provided, either in-person or over the phone
Hospital Mental Health Care
Sometimes there are issues that cannot be resolved in therapy. If you or someone you love is experiencing thoughts about taking their life, or they are frequently physically harming themselves, they might need to get help by staying at a hospital for a few days. The purpose of this is to keep the person safe, and to provide intensive treatment. Treatment may involve medication to help stabilize mood, support from a therapist and doctors, and health monitoring.
If someone is experiencing overwhelming thoughts of hurting themselves, doctors and counselors can require the person to go to the hospital for 24 hours. This would only happen after a thorough mental health evaluation, and if there is a very clear concern that the person is at a high risk of hurting themselves.
What you can expect:
Short term (up to 72 hours)
Goal is to stabilize
Connecting the individual with other mental health services after leaving the hospital
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