Archive for category: Behavioral Health

By Thao Le, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, Behavioral Health Director

With every new year comes new resolutions. Whether it’s getting in shape, traveling more, or quitting smoking, every new year gives us an opportunity to turn the page and start fresh. While coming up with a New Year’s resolution can be difficult, it can sometimes be just as difficult to maintain the resolution over a period of time. This is known as a New Year’s resolution “slump.” One of the greatest reasons why a resolution fails is because the resolution does not become habit. According to a 2023 article by Forbes Health, most people give up resolutions after less than four months.

Fortunately, there are tips to help make sure your resolution sticks:

• Set “SMART” goals
• Stick to just picking one goal to prevent feeling overwhelmed
• Write out a detailed plan
• Stay motivated by tracking progress
• Don’t be afraid to ask for support from friends and family
• Give habits time to make them stick
• Reward yourself

In the United States, the most popular New Year’s Resolution for 2026 revolves around health and finances, according to early December 2025 surveys. Whatever your goal may be – make it happen and let’s start off the new year with a bang!

By Chris Woodward, MA, LCAC, Director of Substance Abuse Services

While in session with a client recently, they made a statement that has stuck with me. They said, “This recovery thing is everything.”

That simple phrase held weight. Life had thrown challenges their way as they tried to rebuild it in alignment with their values. To move forward, they had to change their perspective—and that change began with seeing recovery not as one part of life, but as the foundation of it.

Dependency Is Everything, Until Recovery Is Everything

When we’re caught in cycles of unhealthy coping, dependency becomes everything. Just like we rely on recovery when we commit to healing, we also rely—often unknowingly—on patterns, substances, and behaviors that numb, distract, or soothe us.

Take today, for example. It’s “the hottest day of the year”—again. Lately, it seems we get one of those every week. And on days like this, I’m completely dependent on air conditioning, water, and shade to avoid becoming a literal and metaphorical hot mess.

In the same way, many of us are dependent on something to get through the day. That might be substances, food, social media, gambling, relationships, tobacco, or anything else we use to cope—or to avoid. These coping strategies can temporarily quiet the noise, but over time they can steal our self-worth, strain our relationships, drain our bank accounts, and harm our physical health.

Hours spent scrolling our phones can feel like a cure for loneliness but may deepen our isolation. Betting on a sports team might create a temporary rush, but often it’s a distraction from deeper discomfort. Even something as simple as a comforting afternoon coffee may become a crutch we feel we need just to function.

Dependency creeps in quietly. Then, it becomes everything.

Making Recovery Everything

Recovery isn’t just about abstaining from a substance or behavior. It’s about reshaping how we show up—for ourselves, our relationships, and our lives.

If recovery becomes everything, then how we pursue it makes all the difference. We start to choose connection over avoidance. We have conversations with our families instead of retreating into our phones. We move our bodies not to escape, but to care. We build self-awareness instead of numbing out.

As we approach September—National Recovery Month—it’s a powerful reminder that recovery is possible, and that healing deserves to be recognized, celebrated and supported. It’s an opportunity to honor the strength it takes to move away from dependency and toward a more intentional, connected life.

If any of this resonates with you—if you see yourself in these words or feel that tug toward something healthier—please reach out to us at 913-730-3664 to make an appointment.

By Ming Strother, LSCSW, Behavioral Health Clinician 

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) shared the following statement regarding Mental Illness Awareness Week, 2023 (MIAW):

Each year, millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental health condition. However, mental illness affects everyone directly or indirectly through family, friends or coworkers. That is why each year, during the first week of October, NAMI and participants across the country raise awareness of mental illness, fight discrimination and provide support through Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW).

We believe that mental health conditions are important to discuss year-round but highlighting them during MIAW provides a dedicated time for mental health advocates across the country to come together as one unified voice. Since 1990, when Congress officially established the first full week of October as MIAW, advocates have worked together to sponsor activities, large or small, to educate the public about mental illness.

Each one of us can help bring awareness to mental illness by educating ourselves, sharing our stories, talking openly about mental illness, advocacy, and much more. Approximately one in five adults in the US lives with a mental illness. There is no single cause, and several factors can contribute to a person’s risk, including trauma, genetics, chronic medical conditions, substance use, and feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Sharing our stories and talking openly about mental illness can increase feelings of connectedness and help others to feel less alone. It helps with normalizing conversations and reducing stigma. Having these conversations can lead to increased feelings of empowerment and encourage help seeking behavior.

Advocacy not only includes the sharing of stories and talking openly but supporting others who may be struggling with mental illness, volunteering for your local mental health center, talking with community leaders, and acting on advocacy issues.

At Health Partnership Clinic, we offer affordable in person and telehealth therapy services for clients 12 and older. If you or someone you love would like to schedule an appointment, it can be done by calling 913-730-3664.

If you need to find additional help for yourself, a friend, or family member, please see the additional resources below.

National and local resources:

Suicide and Crisis Lifeline:
Call or text to 988 or go to 988lifeline.org (online chat available including services for the deaf and hard of hearing)

National Alliance on Mental Illness
https://www.nami.org

Mental Health America
https://mhanational.org

Johnson County Mental Health
913-826-4200
Crisis Line 913-268-0156
https://www.jocogov.org/dept/mental-health/home

Community mental health centers are found throughout the United States.

To find the community mental health center nearest you in Kansas or Missouri click the links below:

Kansas

https://www.kdads.ks.gov/commissions/behavioral-health/services-and-programs/community-mental-health-centers

Missouri

https://dmh.mo.gov/behavioral-health/treatment-services/locating-services-treatment/community-mental-health-centers

By Christopher W. Woodward, LCAC, Substance Abuse Specialist

Dog Days of Summer

Stop for a moment and remember the start of summer. Remember the feeling when that new warm sun hits your skin, the days filled with fun and joy. Remember the change from the bitterness of the fall and winter to the warm and consoling temperatures of the spring and the summer.

For some of us it is a break, a time to recharge. A time to gather at the lake or pool and relax. As time passes that warmth has been replaced with oppressive heat. We have hit the dog days, the last days of summer where we start to find the building heat unbearable and irritating.

This year, the heat has been enough that the temps have felt like 100 degrees for several weeks. And we have had enough. We get to the point where we want to stay in, not socialize, not see our buddies at the pool or splash in the lake. The sunglasses have been lost and scratched, and the cool water of the lake has moved to a warm taped bath that seems to not refresh as easily. Our skin is burnt and sore, and the kids are cranky and needing a routine.

Often this is the same as our use of substances.

Many of us started off with the warm benefits of relaxation and a carefree lifestyle—to the hot and humid oppression that our summer has become. Many start the substance of choice for a reason. Perhaps to relax on a hot day after mowing the yard, to kick our feet up and read a good book or to start a conversation with a new person at the local establishment.

Just like summer, the more exposure we give the alcohol or the substance, the more wear and tear it has on our brain and on our body. Sometimes we need more of the substance to get the same effect, moving from that one relaxing drink to several drinks over several days. Then we find that those drinks do not satisfy like they used to, and we cannot get through the day without them.

As we move into Recovery Month, it is important to know that these dog days are only part of our story. They come around sometimes yearly and cause us to feel emotions, and irritations and to seek comfort and care. We can look around and find a spot to refresh, relax and gain access to the care that we need. Recovery can bring in a new season of life where we learn skills. A way to feel safe to remain in places where we can fill up the voids of relationship, pain, suffering and problems. Places where we can go out in the sun and not get burned as it were.

A balanced life of recovery provides us and our family with the best of all seasons, even the hot ones.

Health Partnership Clinic offers a comprehensive medical home that addresses all of your medical, dental and behavioral and substance-related needs. For more information call 913-730-3664.

By Jennifer Truman, LSCSW, LCSW, CCTPII, Lead Behavioral Health Clinician

The development of June as Pride Month dates back to the Stonewall Uprising that began on June 28, 1969 after a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The raids were a common form of the harassment and aggression toward the LGBTQ community at that time, and the Stonewall Uprising marked a major turning-point in the LGBTQ community’s response to discrimination.

Since the 1969 Stonewall Uprising much progress has been made for LGBTQ rights, however, progress toward equality of any group is always met with resistance. Continued advocacy is needed in order to sustain and develop the growth of rights for the LGBTQ community. A recent example of controversy affecting the LGBTQ community is the focus on members of the transgender community. Many opinions have been developed about this community without understanding of the community itself. The below information from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) can help provide an introduction to the people of the transgender community and some of the concerns they experience.

• The word “transgender” – or trans – is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to us at birth. Although the word “transgender” and our modern definition of it only came into use in the late 20th century, people who would fit under this definition have existed in every culture throughout recorded history.
• The trans community is incredibly diverse. Some trans people identify as trans men or trans women, while others may describe themselves as non-binary, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, agender, bigender or other identities that reflect their personal experience. Some take hormones or have surgery as part of the transition, while others may change their pronouns or appearance.
• In addition to experiencing problems related to stigma, harassment and discrimination, members of the trans community face problems around lack of health insurance coverage. An HRC Foundation analysis found that 22 percent of trans people and 32 percent of trans people of color have no health insurance coverage. More than one-quarter (29 percent) of trans adults have been refused health care by a doctor or provider because of their gender identity.

While political controversy has developed about members of the trans community and the health services they receive, healthcare organizations continue to recognize that gender-affirming care is well established as an appropriate aspect of an individual’s overall care. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends “providing youth with access to comprehensive gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate health care.” American Medical Association Board Member Michael Suk, MD, JD, MPH, MBA, states, “Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.”

Good healthcare is built around effective relationships between patients, their families and healthcare providers. These relationships depend on the rights of individuals and families to work with their healthcare providers to make the health-related decisions that impact their lives. Health Partnership Clinic recognizes the right for all people to receive comprehensive, effective and compassionate healthcare based on their individual needs.

For more information about LGBTQ+ advocacy, visit the Human Rights Campaign website.