Join us for the next Mind Matters ECHO



Our next Mind Matters ECHO meeting will be held on June 12, 2023 from 5:30-7:00pm.

If you have a case you'd like to share for consultation and support, please email Anitha Iyer, PhD, Course Director.

Please note that these meetings are now quarterly.

At our April Mind Matters meeting, Jenna Palladino, PsyD addressed some myths about sleep that can contribute to difficultues sleeping.

Educating patients on healthy sleep habits and dysfunctional beliefs about sleep can open the door to making the necessary behavioral changes to get a good night's sleep without relying on medications.

• Understand your patients' attitudes and beliefs about sleep with the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (DBAS-16) scale
• Learn how to address common misconceptions about sleep and health
• Share healthy sleep habits

Key findings:

• Interventions should target specific patterns of sleep problems
• Identifying and treating sleep problems in childhood may prevent mental health problems in early adolescence
• The severity of sleep problems is more relevant than type of sleep disturbance in assessing risk for psychopathology symptoms
• There is high comorbidity between somatic distress and sleep problems
• In adolescents it may be more helpful to target sleep behavior than mental health symptoms for improvement in both domains

It's no secret that there is high stigma surrounding mental health which can be incredibly harmful to people living with mental health conditions and interfere with their treatment and recovery.

The CDC offers a variety of provider resources on mental health literacy, including a CME course from the University of Texas at Austin on stigma-free communication about mental health.

Information to share with your patients: insomnia in older adults