Mental Well-Being
Here to help Delawareans actualize Mental Wellness
Mental Well-Being - The effective functioning in daily activities, relationships, and ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity.
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Delawareans by helping them with self-soothing techniques, mapping their support systems, differentiating between thoughts and emotions, emotional language development, coping skills, building healthy relationships, maintaining/developing a healthy marriage, healthy communication skills, developing empathy for their traumatized brains, developing compassion for others, intellectual and cognitive functioning, building resilience, self-awareness skills, and identifying local resources that support mental health. (Your mental well-being is essential!)
149,000 adult Delawareans have a mental health condition. 42,000 have a severe mental health condition, and 9,000 Delaware youth between the ages of 12-17 have been diagnosed with depression. 32.8% of Delaware adults reported having symptoms of anxiety and depression that were exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19. 45.5% of Delaware youth ages 12-17 who have depression did not receive any healthcare to address this problem, nor did 38.6% of adults due to mental healthcare costs.
Wits Workout
Wits Workout is a peer-reviewed, pilot-tested brain health resource tool developed to assist leaders who provides programs for older adults in community settings.
Research shows that intellectual challenge and social connectedness are several factors that contribute to brain health throughout life. Wits Workout provides purposeful opportunities for older adults to engage intellectually and increase their socialization through ongoing group participation.
This is a fun-filled and challenging 1-hour program for 6-weeks. Run as a competition with intellectual challenges; participants can expect to compete in groups, partners, as individuals. This program is excellent for seniors ages 60+.
Activities address:
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
Immediate recalling
Aging as it relates to brain health
Diet as it relates to brain health
Socialization
Exercise
Stress management
Sensory memory
Mind Matters
This is the perfect 6-week, evidence-based curriculum to reach school-aged youth. Youth learn skills to self-regulate, learn to respond instead of react, and how to overcome adversity.
Mind Matters teaches how to overcome adversity and build resilience. Participants learn to address their physical, relational, and mental health needs by taking charge of themselves and their responses. This program has been run in partnership with the school’s guidance department for youth in 7th grade to 12th.
Topics Covered:
Lesson 1
focuses on self-soothing techniques to dial down the reactive response of our body's central nervous system.
Lesson 2
Focuses on discovering emotions -which teaches us to value, identify, and understand what our bodies and brains tell us through emotions, as well as developing the language to communicate our internal experiences.
Lesson 3
Focuses on learning the difference between emotions and thoughts, participants will practice a tool to develop an "observing self"...when a person confuses emotions with thoughts, they treat emotions as facts, and we want to make sure they can differentiate between the two.
Lesson 4
Focuses on developing Empathy; this skill is necessary for healthy relationships.
Lesson 5
Focuses on having compassion for the hijacked brain...we discuss how trauma affects the brain, which in turn affects our behavior; in this lesson, we concentrate on how to overcome the effects of trauma.
Lesson 6
Focuses on Trauma containment & rhythm - this lesson aims to provide two methods to heal from harmful experiences...this involves music -which should be fun for participants.
Upcoming events
Adults Only: Resilience X
Resilience X is a course that educates individuals on boosting their resiliency by focusing on factors within a person’s control and developing coping skills to address current and future challenges.
This 6-week, 1.5-hour-a-week program is run as a group style class; program participants learn skills for coping with stress, disappointment, challenges, and adversity; how to tap into resilience when unsuspecting situations arise; and learn to identify the things they can change. Great for those: Reentering society, in recovery, experiencing mental health challenges, or facing new adventures
Topics Covered:
Session 1 – The Sailboat Metaphor an example of resilience
Session 2 – Mastering Attention: Participants learn the significance of attention, the bias towards negativity, and the power of a positive focus
Session 3 – The Power of Thoughts: Participants explore the connection between thoughts and resilience and develop the skills to cultivate more helpful thoughts that foster resilience.
Session 4 – Motivation to Push Forward: Participants explore the motivation to push forward during challenging times and discuss how motivation relates to dealing with stress and resilience. Participants also learn about the power of values and their role in staying motivated.
Session 5 – Effective Coping: Provide participants with insights and strategies to navigate difficult circumstances by focusing on effective coping.
Session 6 – The Resilience Plan: Participants reflect on their journey and evaluate their transformation as captains throughout the training.
Love Notes: Modified version for ages 13-17, full version ages 18-24.
Love Notes is an evidence-based curriculum used to help reduce teenage pregnancy. This curriculum teaches how to make wise choices about relationships and how to be and select a good partner, all of which can influence your mental health. This curriculum is for ages 13 -24. This is a sexuality and gender-neutral curriculum
This evidence-based curriculum can be modified for youth in grades 7th and above. This program runs for six weeks for 1 hour (modified for schools as needed). It covers the importance of self-awareness, navigating relationships in the age of technology, focused decision-making, dating while parenting, and principles and characteristics of an intelligent, healthy relationship.
Topics Covered:
Lesson 1
Discusses what relationships are like in the technology age, as well as defining a vision for your relationship and activities that involve youth talking to a trusted adult in their life.
Lesson 2
Discusses the importance of knowing yourself because a healthy relationship starts with you; they learn about their personality type and delve into family origins.
Lesson 3
Encourages participants to examine their expectations for their future and the power that expectations can have on their lives.
Lesson 4
We discuss the biological chemistry of attraction and what happens in the brain when attracted to someone.
Lesson 5
Focuses on the principles of an intelligent relationship, which moves the focus from emotions to scrutinizing behaviors in relationships and being able to tell whether a relationship is healthy.
Lesson 6
Focuses on developing skills for decision-making and communication in healthy relationships.
Relationships- Parenting It gets Emotional: Mental health program.
The “Parenting It Gets Emotional” series takes parents through the many emotions experienced while parenting through the child’s life cycle. Created to remove the shame and isolation many parents experience, this series provides space for group sharing about experiences, successes, and challenges while simultaneously learning coping skills and where to access community support. Depending on the needs of the group, this program runs from 6 to 10 weeks for 1.5 hours.
In a judgment-free space, parents learn to ground their emotions and thoughts in positive feelings while confronting emotional challenges with parenting. Parents can learn coping and self-regulating skills, how to communicate their needs with their partner and support system, where to find resources in their community for support, the importance of self-care, what to expect at certain stages of brain development in their child, and to evaluate how they have parented influences how they parent. Classes are available in person, online, and in hybrid form.
Topics Covered
Lesson 1:
Expecting to Labor & Delivery: Anchoring in Love, confronting fear, mentally preparing for childbirth.
Lesson 2:
Parenting ages Birth to 3: Anchoring in Peace, addressing postpartum depression, dealing with parental exhaustion, addressing feelings of exclusion.
Lesson 3:
Parenting ages 4 to 7: Anchoring in Love, primary caregiving-love, social isolation & loneliness, dealing with embarrassment, their independence makes me feel useless.
Lesson 4:
Parenting ages 8 to 12: Anchoring in Joy, feeling rejected, supporting your child’s mental health, parenting while bitter.
Lesson 5:
Parenting ages 13 to 19: Anchoring in Authentic Pride, coping with frustration, disliking your kids, confronting empty nest syndrome
Elevate - For Couples
Elevate is a research-informed curriculum for couples. This couples education curriculum blends practical skills with an understanding of the physiology of human interaction to enhance knowledge and skills of healthy relationships. Healthy couple relationships lead to family stability that benefits adults and children's emotional, social, and physical well-being. This is a sexuality-neutral curriculum, and LGBTQ+ couples are welcome.
This program runs for six weeks for 2hrs per week. This curriculum engages couples in learning and practicing the seven core principles/skills essential to maintaining healthy and stable relationships
Topics covered are:
Lesson 1
Helps couples establish clear goals and expectations for what each partner hopes to come away with from this program.
Lesson 2
Empower yourself: How to manage stress in your marriage
Lesson 3
Lay the foundation: Identify choices and strategies that lay a strong foundation for a safe, stable, and satisfying relationship.
Lesson 4
Enlighten: Identify what individuals and couples need to learn about themselves and each other and what they each bring to the relationship.
Lesson 5
Value: Understand how showing kindness, understanding, respect, and caring can help couples create and maintain stable, healthy relationships.
Lesson 6
Attach: Identify strategies to create meaningful couple time that fosters friendship
Lesson 7
Tame: Identify strategies for regulating emotions and managing stress and conflict.
Lesson 8
Engage: Couples learn to Identify sources of personal and community resources (e.g., family, friends, faith groups) and share meaning (e.g., rituals, spirituality, values) that support healthy couple relationships.