- Behavioral HealthGeneral Page Tier 3BlogWhen someone is experiencing depression, anxiety or substance misuse, it doesn’t just impact them – it impacts their family and their community. We all can do our part to watch for signs of mental health struggles in family and friends. But how do you know when you or a loved one is in a mental health crisis and needs to see a professional? Let’s take a look at the signs and symptoms that can indicate a need for treatment. Here are a few symptoms that indicate depression and substance use: Persistent sadness: A prolonged period of feeling sad, empty or hopeless. Loss of interest: Diminished interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities. Change in sleep patterns: Insomnia or lack of energy. Fatigue: A constant feeling of tiredness or lack of energy. Difficulty concentrating: Reduced ability to focus, make decisions, or remember details. Appetite changes: Significant weight loss or gain due to changes in eating habits. Irritability: Unexplained mood swings, increased irritability, or restlessness. Isolation: Withdrawing from friends, family, and social activities. When it comes to substance abuse, there are several signs that indicate a person needs help: Changes in behavior: Sudden and unexplained shifts in personality or actions. Neglecting responsibilities: Failing to fulfill work, school, or family obligations. Social withdrawal: Isolating from friends and family, preferring to be alone. Tolerance buildup: Needing more of the substance over time to achieve the same effects. Withdrawal symptoms: Physical and psychological reactions when substance use is reduced or stopped. Loss of control: Inability to cut down or control substance use. Continued use despite consequences: Continued substance use despite negative impact on health, relationships, or job. Secrecy with use: Hiding substance use and being dishonest about its extent. Financial issues: Experiencing money problems due to spending on substances. Legal problems: Getting into trouble with the law related to substance use. It’s important to understand that each person’s experience is different, and you may not experience or see every symptom on these lists. But if you read these lists and think it sounds like something you or a friend or family member are going through, it could be a mental health crisis so please contact a behavioral health professional. A provider can give an accurate diagnosis and provide guidance on treatment options. At Luminis Health, we offer a wide range of mental health services, including: Behavioral Health Walk-In Urgent Care – for moderate to severe psychiatric symptoms that need to be addressed in less than 24-72 hours Outpatient Treatment for Mental Health or Substance Use – For those who are able to wait for a scheduled appointment. Telehealth options are available. Inpatient Treatment for Mental Health or Substance Use – For those who need 24 hour treatment Please visit https://Luminis.Health/BehavioralHealth to schedule care.0
- Behavioral Health, CommunityGeneral Page Tier 3BlogAbout four in ten adults (or 42 percent of Americans) report that there is a gun in their household. Recent data shows that more people died from firearm injuries in the United States last year than in any other year since 1968, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Gun-related injury and death remains one of the most seriously, and largely unaddressed, challenges facing the country. As the number of firearm homicides and suicides rise, the medical community is taking notice and action to treat the issue as a public health concern. Well over 100 professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association, have identified gun violence as a threat to the health of the nation and have issued calls to action around gun safety. At Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC), leaders in ethics and medicine are working together to lay the groundwork for a policy on how clinicians can counsel patients on gun safety. “The perfect storm is brewing for us to no longer turn our back,” says David Moller, Ph.D., chief of clinical and organizational ethics at AAMC, in reference to gun safety. “It’s always about the people and, as medical professionals, we have a moral obligation to keep our communities healthy and safe.” READ MORE: Tips for talking to kids after traumatic events What does gun safety look like from a physician perspective? “My responsibility as a physician is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of patients,” says Vincent DeCicco, DO, family physician at Anne Arundel Medical Group (AAMG) Annapolis Primary Care. “To me, it’s like talking to patients about their risk for heart disease. My moral obligation is to ask patients about their behaviors and help them get on a healthier track. ” Dr. DeCicco says conversations about gun safety with patients start by encouraging healthy behaviors, which means owning a firearm in a responsible and safe manner. “Public health comes down to encouraging healthy behaviors,” adds Dr. DeCicco. “I won’t take your weapon away as a physician, but I do have a moral obligation to talk to you about the responsibility that comes with it.” Andrew McGlone, MD, physician at AAMG Annapolis Primary Care, concurs that gun safety is a public health issue. “The medical community is positioned to play a significant role in the reduction of injury and death from firearms,” he says. “We can start by promoting gun safety to decrease unauthorized access for children, adolescents, and patients at risk for suicide. Approximately 40 percent of gun deaths in Maryland are from suicide. Research estimates that 45 percent of suicide victims in the United States were in contact with a primary care provider within one month of suicide. Empowering health providers, patients and their families to have honest and stigma-free conversations about mental health, suicide risk and gun safety is imperative.” How can a public health approach help with gun safety? Like other major health threats, Moller says the medical community can help reduce avoidable gun-related injuries and deaths using a public health approach. Using domestic violence as an example, he says medical professionals needed to think bigger and broader about how to solve the problem to achieve substantive change. “As cases of domestic violence increased, medical professionals began to develop the idea that we needed a different approach, says Moller. “We began to reframe the problem of domestic violence away from the individual encounter and began looking at it as a community and public health problem.” As a result, health providers today often screen their patients for signs of abuse and many hospitals are providing coordinated services to domestic violence victims. Similarly, Moller says starting a conversation together about reasonable, sensible solutions and recommendations on gun safety, storage, accessibility, and health is pivotal. “This conversation is not aimed at taking away the legitimate right of people to own and use guns, but at minimizing the violence and the mortality that is associated with the role of guns in American society,” he adds. “It has to start with a conversation, and that conversation has to be reasonable, sensible and civil. For us in the medical profession, this transcends politics. Harm reduction is not the same as gun control. This is not political advocacy, it’s patient advocacy.” Originally published in What’s Up Magazine. Authors David Moller, Ph.D., is chief of clinical and organizational ethics at AAMC. Vincent DeCicco, DO, is a family physician at Anne Arundel Medical Group (AAMG) Annapolis Primary Care. To reach him, call 443-270-8600. Andrew McGlone, MD, is a physician at AAMG Annapolis Primary Care. To reach him, call 443-481-1150.0
- Behavioral Health, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogIt all started with a phone call. Lisa Hillman got the call from a beloved teacher, warning her that her teenage son, Jacob, may be dabbling in drugs. “I will always remember that phone call,” says Lisa, the former longtime president of the AAMC Foundation. “I thought, he’s got to be wrong.” But he wasn’t wrong. That call would signal the start of a years-long battle with addiction for Jacob. “In addiction, the phone can be a nightmare,” Lisa says. With the help of therapists at AAMC’s Pathways, and later drug rehabilitation in Florida, the nightmare is over today. Now 28, Jacob is more than five years clean. “But who’s counting, right?” Lisa says. She’s written a book, Secret No More, which chronicles her son’s struggle with drug addiction and her family’s efforts to help him – and ultimately, themselves. “I wanted to write a story of hope,” she says. The secrecy of addiction Before addiction touched her family, Lisa, as a well-known hospital executive, lived an idyllic life. Her husband, Richard, is a former Annapolis mayor. They raised their daughter, Heidi, and Jacob in historic downtown Annapolis. But things changed during Jacob’s junior year of high school. First Lisa caught her son openly drinking in front of her. Then she got that phone call. Jacob graduated from high school and was accepted to the University of Maryland with honors, but his life took a sharp turn during a senior week trip to North Carolina. There, he was arrested for marijuana. A year later, he failed out of college due to his drug use, and returned home to work and attend Anne Arundel Community College. “He still didn’t seem right,” Lisa recalls. She soon learned he was continuing to use. Desperate to fix his problem, Lisa called a colleague at Pathways, AAMC’s addiction treatment center. She knew she would keep her call confidential. The Hillmans lived a public life in many ways, Lisa says, but they also valued their privacy. Lisa found herself balancing the demands of overseeing a multi-million dollar capital campaign at AAMC with discreetly trying to get her son the help he needed. “I think it’s a skill you learn,” she says. Pathways eventually sent Jacob to rehab in Florida, and that’s when Lisa learned something else. “I didn’t realize I was sick,” she says. Healing herself Through the help of a support group, Lisa learned the phrase that would become her mantra. “I didn’t cause it, I can’t control it, and I can’t cure it,” she says. With Jacob in Florida, Lisa focused on healing herself and letting her son go – detaching with love, she says. Back home in Annapolis, she took a call one night from her son, who confessed he’d had a minor relapse. She told him to take care of himself. “I was able to say that to Jacob because of the support group and learning to put the focus on him,” she says. It was a lesson she had to remember on New Year’s Eve in 2011, when she got a call from Jacob’s counselor in Florida. He told her Jacob needed detox immediately. The Hillmans agreed to pay for his treatment, but decided it would be the last time. And fortunately, something clicked within Jacob. “He wanted to be clean,” Lisa says. One day at a time Today, Jacob lives in Florida and works in recovery, managing a group of homes for recovering addicts. “For him, it’s almost a calling,” Lisa says. Writing her book, too, was a calling. She wants other families who are dealing with addiction to know that it’s OK to talk about it. Years later, Lisa reflects on the strangeness of trying to keep Jacob’s addiction a secret, even as she sat on the board of Pathways. Once she opened up to her bosses about her secret, they were supportive, a nod to the therapeutic environment in which she worked. She urges other parents dealing with an addicted child to find someone in whom they can confide. “It is a family problem,” Lisa says. “If the addict is to get better, it helps if the family gets better.” And you may not be able to fix the addict, but you can fix yourself. “One thing that addiction teaches you is to live life one day at a time,” she says. “Sometimes, it’s one hour at a time. Sometimes, it’s one minute at a time.” Pathways hosts Family Wellness Workshops for family members of adults and teens struggling with addiction, as well as those dealing with a combination of substance abuse and mental health problems. Call 410-573-5449 for upcoming dates, and register for a Family Wellness Workshop today. Originally published May 30, 2017. Last updated May 4, 2018.0
- Cancer Care, Women's HealthGeneral Page Tier 3BlogAt eight months pregnant, first-time mother-to-be Jessi Collins began experiencing shortness of breath. After a trip to the ER, she learned she had a massive tumor near her lungs. After being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer in the lymph nodes, Jessi did the only thing she could do: Put her faith in the hands of her doctors. “I thought to myself, ‘This cannot be happening. I am 31 years old and 31 weeks pregnant. How can this be?’ It was very surreal,” says Jessi. “There were times when I was furious and said to myself, ‘This just isn’t fair.'” Read more about Jessi’s story and learn how her “miracle team” of doctors helped keep both her and her baby healthy.0
- PediatricsGeneral Page Tier 3BlogIn an increasingly fast-paced, technology-driven world, teen stress, depression and anxiety are on the rise. A survey by the American Psychological Association found that younger Americans report the highest level of stress among all age groups. In addition to peer, academic, social and family pressures, the holiday season can bring seasonal stressors. Less daylight. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a common cause of the blues in the winter months due to a decrease in sunlight. Changes in schedules and routines. Teens are already overscheduled these days. Holiday festivities and family get-togethers can make for an even tighter schedule. Financial worries. Adults aren’t the only ones stressing over finances. Not only do teens pick up on our worries and react to them, they often have the same worries, like how to pay for college or what to do after graduation. And during the holiday season, there is the added financial strain of gift giving. Changes in diet and sleep routines. The holiday season comes with extra sweets and indulgences. In moderation that’s not usually a problem. But too much sugar can have a negative impact on blood sugar and mood. Increased grief about divorce, death, or other family changes. The holidays are often a reminder of loved ones that are no longer with us. Some stress, sadness and anxiety are normal feelings around the holidays. But sometimes seasonal stress can be enough to cause clinical signs of depression and anxiety. It can be hard to distinguish normal teenage angst from signs of something more serious. Here are some signs to look out for: General health complaints, especially frequent headaches and stomach aches. An increase in irritability or moodiness. Declining grades at school. Losing interest in things they used to enjoy. Changes in eating and hygiene habits. Behavioral changes such as acting out or isolating themselves. Good self-care can help combat stress and prevent it from becoming a more serious problem. Here are some things you and your teen can do: Get active. Exercise is a great way to reduce stress. Something as simple as taking a walk helps. Rest. Teens need between eight to 10 hours of sleep a night but rarely get it. Creating a nightly routine is a good way to start better sleep habits. Eat well. The holidays can wreak havoc on a healthy diet. Remember to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein and drink lots of water. A healthy diet can help regulate your mood. Meditation, breathing techniques and yoga are great stress relievers. Giving back can foster gratitude and help your teen gain perspective. Slow Down. Take time to slow down and enjoy the season. Stress isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, it can motivate us to work harder and be more efficient. However, prolonged stress can have a negative impact on our physical and emotional wellbeing. If you notice yourself or your teen continuing to feel overwhelmed with stress, sadness or anxiety beyond the holiday season, it is important to see a mental health professional. Originally published Dec. 28, 2017. Last updated Dec. 16, 2019.0
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