Nueva Vista - Taking Care of Yourself

Psynergy’s Life Skills Academy is a major component in helping clients learn strategies for self care.  Smoking cessation, weight management, safe sex, infectious diseases and stress management are some of the topics we explore through educational classes and cognitive behavior therapy.  For example, if a client thinks that smoking helps them to relax and reduce stress, our dialogue would look at whether or not that is true, the effects of cigarette smoking on the body, and presenting alternative ways to relieve stress, with the goal of changing the client’s perspective.  Psynergy also helps clients acknowledge smoking as an addiction.  Psynergy’s commitment to dual diagnosis and parallel treatment helps clients manage both mental illness and significant addiction challenges.  Historically, these issues were looked at separately, and treatment was seldom integrated.  At Psynergy Programs, clients can be treated for both issues at the same place, at the same time.

Stress Management
Psynergy members are expected to take personal responsibility for physical health as well as their mental health.  We introduce participants to the possible health benefits that are attainable though various regimens of exercise and diet. Participants gain a basic understanding of the physical processes involved with different methods of exercise, and learn about its positive impact on mental and emotional states. Participants are offered the opportunity to gain practical experience in one or more methods of exercise introduced, which include walking, biking, resistance training, basketball, golf, yoga, stretching, and dance/aerobics. Participants explore obstacles to engaging in routine exercise and develop strategies in partnership with staff to overcome these obstacles.  For those that may still have limited mobility issues, we adapt the training to fit their individual needs.

Stress is a natural part of everyone’s daily life and can be felt through a variety of emotions.  Often those individuals who experience a mental disorder feel denied, marginalized or excluded from these basic human feelings.  Psynergy’s therapeutic community model provides the needed support, choice, and context without judgment and control.  We strive to maximize individual efficacy while still providing the necessary medical and clinical supports.  Each resident has a part in deciding when medications may be the best way to relieve their immediate distress.

We remind individuals that addiction is a negative way to cope with stress.  We try to offer more positive ways to deal with stress, and with our emphasis on Dual Diagnosis, i.e. mental illness + addiction, we can work on both issues at the same time.  This integrated approach is unique, and sets Psynergy Programs apart from other care providers.

Weight Management
Managing weight, often so difficult elsewhere, is simply part of the landscape at Psynergy Programs.  We purposely design our food service so that everyone can lose weight, by pairing the highest quality ingredients in terms of taste and presentation with a low fat, low carbohydrate composition equivalent to the finest spa cuisine.  Only healthy fats, such as olive oil, are used, along with fresh, locally grown produce, eggs, meat and fish.  In addition, Psynergy  provides weight supervision by a medical doctor who can also oversee a number of exercise alternatives.  Clients can choose from a walk every evening to customized workouts in the gym, bike riding, and a budding equine program teaching riding skills and stable management.  Although psychotropic medication does sometimes contribute to weight gain, with active monitoring and management effects can be minimized.

Smoking Cessation
At Psynergy, we incorporate smoking cessation as part of our overall philosophy of treatment.  We look at the whole person, and assess how we can help them improve every aspect of their life.  We teach clients how to make healthy choices for themselves, and use both medication (patch therapy) and cognitive behavior techniques (CBT) to reinforce those choices.  For example, we may assess a client’s belief system, and help them correct false assumptions in order to motivate change.  If a client thinks that smoking helps them to relax, and is a valid way to reduce stress, CBT would explore  whether that is true or not, examine the effects of cigarette smoking on the body, and look at alternative ways to relieve stress to help clients change that perspective. 

There are many biological, psychological and social factors that are likely to contribute to the high rates of nicotine addiction found in people with psychiatric disorders. A nationwide survey conducted by the National Comorbidity Study (NCS) found that people with psychiatric disorders consume 44.3 % of all cigarettes smoked in this county.  The study showed that 41% of people with a psychiatric disorders smoke, which is nearly double the rate found in people without psychiatric disorders, and that as many as 85% of people with schizophrenia use tobacco. Despite the high smoking rates, the study found that less than 25% of persons with psychiatric disorders in outpatient settings received counseling aimed at smoking cessation, and in hospitals, only 1% of psychiatric patients were assessed for smoking. The panel report suggests that the reasons for the low rates of assessment and treatment may include health professionals' acceptance of smoking as a matter of individual rights. Within psychiatric settings, nicotine addiction is so pervasive and central to everyday life that it is accepted as part of the "culture" and condoned as a means of relieving stress and coping with symptoms.  

While Psynergy Programs recognizes the legal rights of individuals, we also strive to educate our clientele about the negative health effects of tobacco use. In accordance with our Integrated Dual Recovery Treatment Model, Psynergy Programs employs scientifically sound, "evidence-based" methods to promote healthy lifestyles and to help our clientele develop the motivation to abstain from all forms of substance abuse and substance dependence. All clients participating in Psynergy Programs have their physical health, tobacco-use status and willingness to quit routinely assessed. Our clinical staff members utilize cognitive behavioral interventions and motivational interviewing principals and techniques to increase the individual's motivation to quit smoking and self-determination to adopt a healthy lifestyle. In addition to counseling, unless medically contraindicated, individuals that attempt to quit may be offered medications found to be effective in reducing withdrawal symptoms and increasing quitting success.