Caring for the mind is just as important as caring for the body.

For the 54 million Americans who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse, access to services and treatments is not a luxury; it is a fundamental need. Wuesthoff Health System offers a Behavioral Health program that can help.

Life can be very stressful, and everyone has a personal threshold for what level of stress they can tolerate. For those with chronic mental illness, it may not take much to prompt a decline. For others, life may become overwhelming at times causing temporary bouts of depression and anxiety. When this occurs, people may consider devastating solutions to those stressful situations because they see no end in sight. Suicide is a very real worry for many Americans and a sad tragedy that happens too frequently during times of stress. Family and loved ones may not know how to help or where to turn for advice.

At Wuesthoff Health System, we believe that caring for the mind is just as important as caring for the body. Perhaps you or a family member has struggled for years with mental illness or substance abuse. Whatever the struggle, we can help.

For More Information, please call 321-636-2211, ext 2825.

A Team Approach

Wuesthoff's 17-bed crisis unit provides comfort and security for patients and their families. Our care team provides crucial intervention for people 18 years of age and older in an environment where kindness, confidentiality and respect are valued. Individuals entering our program will receive, within 24 hours after admission, a mental health functioning assessment, a thorough psychiatric evaluation, direct observation by trained professionals and a review of medical records.

Wuesthoff Health System emphasizes a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of our patients. The care team consists of psychiatrists, social workers, mental health counselors, nurses and mental health technicians who communicate daily to develop customized assessment and treatment plans. We involve both the patient and their family or support system in this process to ensure the most effective and structured treatment and discharge plan will be developed.

Treatment Plan

The care team provides patients with individualized psychiatric treatment in a home-like setting. Treatment plans are solution-focused with an average patient stay of three to five days. Our goal is to help create a safe discharge plan that includes long-term treatment and goals for each patient. It is our mission to help manage the patient's stressors that prompted their hospital stay. Mental Health Statistics

• More than 54 million Americans are affected by a mental disorder in any given year, although fewer than 8 million seek treatment (Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, 1999).
• Depression and anxiety disorders - the two most common mental illnesses - each affect 19 million American adults annually (National Institute of Mental Health, 1999).
• Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, affects more than 2 million Americans (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000)
• Depression greatly increases the risk of developing heart disease. People with depression are four times more likely to have a heart attack than those with no history of depression (National Institute of Mental Health, 1998).
• Approximately 15 percent of all adults who have a mental illness in any given year simultaneously experience a substance abuse disorder, which complicates treatment (Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, 1999).