APA Blogs
25 Results
Creative Arts: Enhancing Mental Health and Well-being
Creative arts are used in supporting mental health care in a variety of ways. Art therapy uses creative means to treat mental illnesses and improve mental health. It can involve various treatments, such as theater therapy, dance movement psychotherapy, music therapy, poetry, pottery drawing, painting and craft therapy. Art therapy uses integrative techniques to captivate the soul, body and mind in ways that verbal expression alone doesn't appear to (Shukla)
Helping Patients Cope with Emotional Reactions to Climate Change: Advice for Mental Health Clinicians
- By Elizabeth Haase, M.D.
Climate change is not easy for the human mind to understand. It has qualities, like its enormous scale, complexity and uncertainty, that make it hard to comprehend. Greenhouse gases are invisible, and what is happening on one part of the planet is not happening on another: you can’t “see” it.
How Do Companion Animals and Therapy Animals Support Mental Well-being?
Companion animals are increasingly being used to support mental wellbeing and to augment mental health treatment. A new book from APA Publishing, The Role of Companion Animals in the Treatment of Mental Disorders, reviews recent research and highlights the variety of ways mental health professionals are working with companion animals to support treatment and promote mental health.
Quitting Smoking Saves Lives, But Medications to Help Are Under Prescribed
On Nov. 17, 2022, the country will mark the Great American Smoke-Out, an event organized by the American Cancer Society to encourage people to quit smoking. Despite overall drops in tobacco usage over the past few decades, smoking still kills nearly an estimated 480,000 people a year. Â
The Challenges and Privileges of Caring for Veterans as a VA Psychiatrist
Psychiatrists in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have the distinct honor of serving America’s veterans and the privilege of practicing in a functional federal healthcare system. While rewarding, the job is simultaneously an experience of perpetual demand to ensure time is most efficiently spent treating a panel of patients within a population-based care model.