Catawba Valley Health Blog
Suicide: Causes and Prevention
Suicide is a serious public health issue in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, with over 48,000 suicides per year. In this article, we will address:...
Smoking Cessation
What is Smoking Cessation? Smoking cessation refers to the process of quitting the habit of smoking. Everyone knows that quitting smoking is very hard work due to the highly addictive nicotine content in tobacco. But it is also widely known that cigarettes,...
Effective Communication in Healthcare
Tips for Communicating with your Healthcare Providers Talking to your healthcare providers about your physical or mental health or that of a loved one can feel difficult at times; sometimes it can be very difficult to find the right words to describe how you are...
Self-Care for Healthcare Workers
What is Self Care? When you think about the term “self-care,” what comes to your mind? What kind of self-care schedule and plan do you have in place? Do you need to revise or strengthen your plan? Recommit to it? This blog is here to help, especially if you are...
Understanding Recovery from Addiction
What does Recovery from Addiction mean? Recovery is a process of change by which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and work to reach their full potential. People find Recovery everyday from a wide range of challenges, however,...
Fall and Back-to-School Health Tips
Fall is a beautiful time of year. However, it also comes with shorter days of sunlight, cooler temperatures, people spending more time indoors, and students working in classrooms where they can share germs and illnesses more readily with each other and then their...
The Biopsychosocial Model of Healthcare
What is the biopsychosocial model of healthcare? The biopsychosocial model of healthcare is both a concept for understanding health, disease, and illness, and a framework for delivering healthcare. The foundational belief of the biopsychosocial model is that one’s...
Health Equity: What is it and Why is it so Important?
Achieving health equity in a community, state, country, or in the world, requires a shared vision of increasing not only access to quality health care, but also addressing the unique needs of different populations and eliminating barriers of cost and other forms of...
The Importance of Wellness Exams
The Importance of Annual Check Ups An annual check up (also known as a wellness exam) is an annual visit with your primary care provider that helps you and your provider stay current and proactive on all your health care needs. Annual check ups and their accompanying...
Dealing With Holiday Stress: Tips for Maintaining Your Mental Health
While everyone wants the holidays to be a time of joy, this holiday season will undoubtedly bring unwelcomed emotions and challenges for lots of people-- from stress and anxiety to sorrow and depression. The impact of COVID continues to devastate communities...
How Social Determinants of Health Align With Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
What are the Social Determinants of Health? Social determinants of health (SDoH) as defined by the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They include the conditions in which...
What is Brain Health?
Prioritizing Mental Health: A Vital Component of Well-Being Mental health is finally receiving the attention it deserves as more people recognize its essential role in overall wellness. According to many mental healthcare professionals, this focus is long overdue. For...