Introduction

Emotional wellness promotes physical wellness and plays a major role in patients' adherence to medical advice and recovery from medical conditions. Research has linked depression and its negative affect to a wide range of serious health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pain, as well as risky behaviors like smoking and poor eating habits.¹ This booklet helps health care providers address the important link between physical and emotional health.

Promoting emotional wellness may be especially important for women. Depressive disorders affect nearly twice as many women as men each year in the United States, and increasing numbers of women continue to suffer from a wide range of chronic illnesses including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.² Women's mental health may be related to the ability to balance multiple roles and responsibilities, including the often-competing demands of work, relationships with friends and family members, and children. While women appear to be more susceptible to depression than men are, they also experience more joy.³

As a health care provider, you can help promote positive mental health in your female patients by helping them understand the relationship between their physical and emotional health. By promoting simple steps, you can help them appreciate themselves, find their balance and purpose in life, and connect with others. These factors will help women of all ages increase their well-being, satisfaction, and overall quality of life, and may also improve their physical health. You can help your patients think of emotional wellness as a goal for their overall health, just like fitness or nutrition goals.

This booklet provides:

• A short overview of current research on mental health and emotional wellness
• Information on how talk to your patients about emotional wellness
• Conversation starters to use with your patients
• Information about companion patient education tools
• Additional resources
• Works cited

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