How to Make a Long-Term Mental Health Plan
Mental health is just as important as physical fitness for a person’s overall well-being. Your emotions, thoughts, and relationships play a huge role in determining your happiness, which is why looking after your mental health is so important. Unfortunately, those with mental illnesses can face more difficulties in doing this due to their condition. Even so, that’s no reason to neglect mental health.
Whether your approach to mental health involves self-care or professional care, you will benefit from proper planning. A long-term mental health plan also prepares you in case of future complications by appointing a healthcare proxy through medical power of attorney.
Read on to discover how you can protect your mental health through behavior modification and advance directives.
Five Ways to Boost Mental Health
Mental health is a broad concept that includes psychological, emotional, and social aspects. Just like neglecting physical exercise can see you put on weight and lose muscle, ignoring mental health can lead to the development of various problems.
Everyone is susceptible to poor mental health, even those who haven’t been clinically diagnosed with a specific illness. If you’ve ever had a day when you didn’t feel like getting out of bed or meeting friends, you know what that feels like.
Thankfully, there are many steps you can take to become proactive in safeguarding your mental health. Some ways to boost mental health include:
- Regular exercise releases endorphins that help improve mood
- Eating clean and drinking lots of water to increase energy levels
- Getting ample amounts of sleep to boost brain function
- Meditation or other forms of relaxation to decrease stress
- Building meaningful relationships to meet your social needs
These measures sound easy, but in reality, maintaining your mental health can be more complicated, especially if you have a mental illness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 57.8 million Americans were suffering from mental illnesses in 2021. For these patients, lifestyle modifications might not be enough. They might require professional assistance, in which case it is best to put together a long-term mental health plan.
What Is a Long-Term Mental Health Plan?
A mental health plan is a set of legal and medical documents that contain detailed instructions outlining illnesses, treatment methods, and the patient’s goals. Every individual will have a unique mental health plan based on various factors, such as the nature of the disorder, patient history, and desired outcomes.
Patients should work with their mental health caregivers, counselors, and therapists to devise a plan that will help ensure their long-term health and happiness.
Who Can Benefit from Mental Health Support?
Officially, there are two types of mental illnesses: any mental illnesses (AMI) and serious mental illnesses (SMI), with the latter being a subset of the former. AMI encompasses disorders that cause mild-to-moderate impairment, like anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While these patients can certainly benefit from professional assistance, those who suffer from SMI should undoubtedly seek out qualified medical help.
Examples of SMI include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Bipolar disorder
- Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
- Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Schizophrenia
Apart from people diagnosed with SMI, other groups that could benefit from long-term mental health support include the elderly or those who are facing substance abuse issues.
How to Create a Mental Health Treatment Plan
Some signs that your mental health is at risk can include difficulty falling asleep, negative moods with feelings of irritability, frustration, and anger, and a lack of interest and focus in your daily activities. If you are experiencing these symptoms regularly, you may benefit from seeking professional help.
The first step to creating your mental health plan is identifying the right doctor, counselor, or therapist to work with. Then, in consultation with your chosen expert, you can specify the nature of your condition.
An in-depth consultation allows professionals to better understand your personality and mentality. This helps the caregiver and the patient set short-term and long-term goals and determine the treatments needed.
Prepare in Advance for Mental Health Treatment
If a mental disorder shows signs of intensifying, patients should appoint a healthcare proxy and grant them medical power of attorney to ensure that their mental health plan is followed even if they are incapacitated. After choosing a trustworthy agent to bear medical power of attorney on your behalf, it’s a matter of specifying the limits and extent of their agency in a POA form.
You can consult an attorney to grant an agent medical POA or download a form using more cost-effective resources available online. Taking a proactive approach to mental health can make even serious mental disorders easier to live with.
