Mental Diagnosis: Nobody Likes a Label

No body likes a label.  Mental health professionals do not like them any better than those they diagnose.  You would never hear a professional telling how happy they are that they got to label someone with a diagnosis.  However, we ask you to look at diagnosis from a different perspective.  The act of diagnosis is in effect because the mental health model is based on the medical world.  Doctors look at symptoms, make a diagnosis and treat based on that diagnosis.  If doctors called everything the same thing – let’s say “the flu” then regardless of whether a patient came in with a gapping chest wound, the sniffles or a jaundice look, the doctor said “You have the flu” then the patient would not be treated quickly or efficiently.  Because of the diagnostic process, they are able to identify symptoms, make the diagnosis and act swiftly.  So, it is not the issue of diagnosis.  It is an issue of stigma.  The issue of stigma will be addressed in a future entry. 

Thank you for reading.

Salt Lake Mental Health – for Professionals

Salt Lake Mental Health wishes to acknowledge the hard work of today’s mental health professionals.  There are many different capacities that helping professionals aid people along their path of mental health and/or substance abuse issues.  It calls for a great deal of training, care and dedication to live a life of service. 

It is our hope that we can make the journey of Salt Lake’s helping professionals a little easier.  We will provide articles, links to journal entries and direct where they might find best practices for various diagnosis.  We also wish to create a sense of community in which professionals may link with others of their ilk to help each other and those they service.  We will provide website, literature and media references.  We will also provide a list of agencies in the valley with information regarding employment, including the point of contact. 

Look for the “For Professionals” tab on the main page of the website upon launch (currently slotted for July 1, 2009).

Mission Statement, Salt Lake Mental Health

Our mission is to connect people with the services they need.

Until now, there has been no unbiased centralized place to find anything and everything you might need regarding mental health and/or substance abuse.  There are many wonderful services being provided in the valley that go unused simply because people do not know how to find them or even that such services exist.  We are changing that.

About Salt Lake Mental Health.com

This is where you will be able to find everything you might need regarding mental health and substance abuse treatment in the Salt Lake area.  This includes easy-to-search up-to-date information that has been verified for:

• Therapy at all levels of care
• Groups
• Classes
• Calendar
• Articles
• Overview of the entire mental health and substance abuse system!
• Special section just for professionals

Anticipated launch date is: July 1st

List of Providers

Our team is working hard to collect, verify and organize an easy-to-search list of ALL providers of mental health and substance abuse in the Salt Lake area.  This list will allow you to search for help with a wide variety of specialties at all levels of care.  You will also be able to search by geographic area, insurance, and language.

Calendar Features

Our calendar will feature anything and everything related to mental health and substance abuse.  This may be a lecture on the mental health benefits of Yoga or a 5K to help children with autism.  Something special about our calendar is that today AND tomorrow’s events will show on the main page, allowing you to know at a glance everything going on in the next couple of days.  It will, of course, allow you to click on it to see all upcoming events.

Articles and Newsroom

SaltLakeMentalHealth.com wants to keep you up-to-date on all things mental health.  Therefore every day you will see  new featured articles on the main page that involves mental health or substance abuse.  You will also be able to search for articles by subject.  Finally, we will have a Newsroom, a thriving beehive humming with mental health and substance abuse related news feeds.