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Special Feature Mental Health Guide
MENTAL HEALTH GUIDE
Special Feature
Caring for our mental health is vital to our overall health and wellness, including our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Our mental health affects how we feel, think, and act. It determines how we handle stressors, how we relate to those around us and assists in making healthy life choices. Positive mental health is essential at every stage of our life, from childhood into adolescence and throughout adulthood.
That’s why Do South® has partnered with local mental health experts, who are here to help through whatever challenges life may throw your way. From individual and relationship counseling to trauma and grief counseling to counseling specific to women and teens, these local professionals want to help. All you need to do is ask – let’s start today!
Additional mental health resources can be found online at DoSouthMagazine.com.
1501 South Waldron, Suite 100 Fort Smith, Arkansas 479.561.7600 anchoredhopecounseling.net
Anchored Hope is a counseling practice helping people cope with a broad range of issues and challenges, providing a safe place for our clients to get help, hope and healing. Our trained and experienced staff is available for both in-person and Technology Assisted Counseling (TAC) for individuals who can’t visit our offices. Services include individual counseling, providing one-on-one therapy addressing a wide variety of issues in a safe, caring, and confidential environment as well as life coaching. Our Relationship Counseling helps to overcome roadblocks to deeper intimacy. Several of our therapists are also trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Repression), a unique trauma-focused psychotherapy designed to alleviate the stress associated with traumatic memories.
2408 S. 51st Ct. Suite G, Fort Smith, Arkansas 479.323.2424 fortsmiththerapy.com
Helping clients deal with the pressures of daily life is the goal of the caring therapists at Fort Smith Therapy, Health and Wellness. Whether recovering from a traumatic event, working through grief issues, or just wanting to feel better, clients are respected as they work through issues getting in the way of living life. Fort Smith Therapy, Health and Wellness offers counseling services for individuals, couples, children, and families in Fort Smith, both in-person and online for Arkansas residents. The practice’s roster of experienced, compassionate professionals helps clients become more comfortable in their own skin whereby they gain more confidence, improve relationships, and regain an excitement for living life.
Celebrate Recovery is a network of highly imperfect people helping other highly imperfect people learn the skills to navigate a world that is very often toxic and painful. We do this by providing a safe place for all people to give and receive support dealing with the hurts, habits, and hang-ups we all face.
The goal of Celebrate Recovery is complete transformation where both the mind and the body benefit from learning new and effective ways to cope with our past, our present and our future, redemptively. The program pairs the traditional twelve steps of recovery with eight recovery principles drawn from the New Testament. Authentic transformation occurs over time; it's rarely quick and never perfect. By diligent application of new skills, individuals slowly begin to discover the presence and reality of a forgiving and an empowering God that is active on our behalf and the reason we celebrate.
Celebrate Recovery meets every Tuesday night at 6 pm, including holidays, in the Worship Center on the Community Bible Church campus in Fort Smith. You don’t need to be a church member or regular attendee to attend. The gathering is open to people eighteen and older and childcare is available for those with younger children. Celebration Place and the Landing are fifty-two-week programs that mirror the Celebrate Recovery curriculum, discovering the same truths in age-appropriate ways.
1012 Fayetteville Road, Van Buren, Arkansas 479.474.7233 memorylanevb.com
ALZHEIMER’S & DEMENTIA
Helping a loved one deal with the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia is one of the most difficult situations a person and their family can face. At Memory Lane, we believe no one has to walk this path alone. We serve those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia by providing a secure living environment and promoting individual dignity and optimum health for the persons in our care.
An Arkansas state licensed assisted living facility, Memory Lane is comprised of three separate care units with a total capacity to serve seventy-four residents in a certified Alzheimer’s Special Care Unit environment. Established in 2009, we serve families in the River Valley as well as from more than twenty states and several foreign countries.
Our trained and experienced staff strives to create an environment that embraces independence, nurtures, promotes structure and safety, accommodates challenging behavior and balances meaningful life with appropriate stimulation.
Understanding life is an activity of being and doing, we partner with the resident, their family, associates, professionals, and the community as part of a continuity of care and supportive services. We strive to eliminate as many factors as possible that cause excess disability and confusion, thereby creating an environment that fosters feelings of belonging and purpose.
SAFETY & PROTECTION
Safety is our number-one concern at Memory Lane, and we have deployed a number of features to help protect our residents in all stages of life.
These features include: • Controlled access with on-site security during evening hours • Emergency/nurse call system • Security cameras in common areas • Sprinkler system, fire pulls, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors • Handicap-accessible showers and bathrooms • Secure outdoor courtyard with safety surface
We also support a robust therapeutic program, designed to maintain health and wellness to whatever extent possible.
THERAPEUTICS INCLUDE
• Gross Motor Activities some of which include exercising, dancing, gardening, and cooking. • Self-Care Activities such as dressing, personal hygiene and grooming. • Social Activities including games, music, and other forms of socialization. • Sensory Enhancement Activities in the form of reminiscing or scent/tactile stimulation.
DIGNITY & RESPECT
Most of all, we uphold individual dignity, honoring the uniqueness of each resident as he or she navigates the oftendifficult journey of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and its effect on quality of life. We believe the life of the person with dementia can be enriched by building on individual strengths, interpreting the language of behavior, and enabling freedom of movement, expression, and experience.
In addition, we also offer upscale, private, independent living apartments for seniors at Legacy Heights. Here, our compassionate staff helps maintain quality of life for our residents and responds to each person as they age. Meals, active social and recreation programs, housekeeping, on-site beauty shop, all utilities, 24-hour security and more make Legacy Heights a convenient, popular option for independent seniors.
Women live healthier, happier lives when they feel confident about who they are. Healing Tree provides women the tools they need to uncover their true potential and embrace the life each was meant to live. Healing Tree therapists help women address difficulties including struggles with anxiety, perfectionism, childhood trauma and post-partum depression. All our therapists are trained in multiple trauma therapies including EMDR, hypnotherapy and trauma conscious yoga. Our targeted counseling for teen girls helps individuals cope with an increasingly difficult world and the non-stop barrage of social media, body issues and peer pressure in society. Where appropriate, we also provide medication management to help patients reduce the symptoms of emotional overwhelm many women feel.
River Valley Teen Center supports tweens’ and teens’ emotional development, so they learn healthy ways of interacting with family, friends and peers. We help heal any hurts and work to repair misguided beliefs such as “I have to be perfect to be accepted.” Our therapists teach healthy ways to navigate this important time through individual counseling, group therapy, and peer resources, helping to make sense of this challenging, confusing, and often-overwhelming phase of life. River Valley Teen Center also gives moms and dads a hand in providing guidance and empathy to a teen who’s struggling. Our caring and skilled therapists teach parents how to support and nurture their teenager while leaving the chaos behind.
EMERGENCY after hours CRISIS LINE: 1.800.542.1031 / Non-Emergency Warm Line: 479.452.6655 Fort Smith, Van Buren, Ozark, Booneville, Paris, Waldron, Mena wacgc.org
The Guidance Center is a nonprofit community behavioral health care provider. This organization serves communities in Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Polk, Sebastian, and Scott counties in Arkansas. They provide a wide range of coordinated health care services to treat mental, emotional, behavioral and substance abuse disorders via a variety of services. Outpatient Counseling is available for children, teens, and adults at all seven clinic locations across the six counties and via telehealth. Services include but are not limited to general stress/anxiety, depression, family therapy, substance use, chronic behavioral health issues, and psychological testing. All services provided are designed to enhance quality of life, reduce symptoms, improve functioning, and support paths of integration into the community.
Children and youth get help through several programs. Western Arkansas Therapeutic Children’s Homes (WATCH) provides therapeutic foster care for children. Learning Enrichment and Appropriate Play (LEAP) focuses on preschool age children dealing with behavioral concerns, peer interaction and compliance within a structured classroom environment.
Five West Crisis Stabilization Unit in Fort Smith, a 16-bed unit serving individuals 18 and older experiencing a psychiatric and/or substance abuse-related crisis, is a program of The Guidance Center. Did you know a first experience of having a psychotic episode may occur between the ages of 15 and 30? If you or a loved one are experiencing feelings of hurting yourself or others, we are available to help 24/7/365 days a year.
Read Chair Publishing, LLC 4300 Rogers Avenue, Suite 20-110 Fort Smith, AR 72903
AN EXCLUSIVE COLLABORATION WITH WEDDING DRESS DESIGNER HAYLEY PAIGE
