Bipolar Wellness Pilot Program
1. A complete physical examination with all possible blood work to determine whether there are physical reasons for this illness.
2. A complete psychological examination.
3. Personality and temperament tests to determine whether there are common behavioral patterns that could be addressed in a skills-based class.
4. Providing a Wellness Manager (WM) to oversee each case, discuss the treatment the consumer has received, and the treatment she would like to receive. The WM will help consumers choose a counselor or a therapist, a psychiatrist, possibly a psychiatric nurse, and any other medical team members. In conjunction with the medical team and the consumer, the WM will help the consumer determine whether she needs person-to-person visits, telephone conversations, or online visits, and how often they need to be scheduled. The WM will help the consumer decide whether she wants to participate in a cognitive therapy program, an interpersonal therapy program, and or an educational skills-based program.
5. The WM will help set up adjunctive treatment options, including including art therapy, music therapy, biofeedback, acupuncture, neurofeedback, hypnosis, light therapy, writing therapy, massage, horticultural therapy, and stress management (among others), and allow consumers to participate in a reasonable number of programs.
6. Every consumers’ medication history will be entered into a computer program to determine what medications she has taken, in what combinations, and what dosages, and what the outcomes have been. This data will be evaluated by a highly skilled doctor who specializes in psychiatric medication and who will make recommendations to the consumers’ psychiatrist.
7. The consumer will meet with a nutritionist to determine whether her dietary needs are being met and to develop dietary recommendations.
8. The consumer will participate in a yoga program and/or meet with an exercise/movement specialist to develop an exercise program, which will be provided free of cost at a local YMCA or Bipolar Wellness Center.
9. The consumer will participate in a weekly mindfulness-meditation program.
10. The consumer will be provided with a computer generated mood chart that she will fill out on a daily basis, and which will be fed into a program so that mood charts can be analyzed on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
11. To launch each program, consumers will spend five days in a Wellness Center so that all the medical tests and lab work can be done, psychological evaluations can be completed, medications can be evaluated, and they can develop a relationship with their Wellness Managers, meet with medical staff members, and wellness team members, and begin participating in wellness activities.
12. The length of the program will have to be determined and a method for evaluating progress determined. As with any relationships, some teams members will have to be replaced over time, and adjunctive therapies adapted or changed. As various needs arise, new program elements including career-related advice will be provided.
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