How to Talk to Patients about Emotional Wellness

Health care providers have a unique opportunity to promote emotional wellness. When patients come in for regular checkups or with specific health concerns, providers can briefly discuss emotional wellness in addition to physical wellness. Talking with patients about emotional wellness emphasizes providers' overall commitment to patients' well-being and recognizes the important connection between physical and emotional health.

In most clinical settings, health information is conveyed by multiple staff members, including primary care providers, psychologists, nurses, social workers, case managers, receptionists, pharmacists, or health educators. Take some time to think about the people who can promote emotional wellness in your clinical setting. Keep in mind that it might be more effective for multiple team members to provide information. Try to coordinate the effort across team members so that messages remain consistent.

Wellness information should be provided at an appropriate literacy level for the patient and in the patient's preferred language, if possible. Wellness messages also should be culturally responsive and sensitive to the influence of cultural and social contexts on what is healthy and appropriate. Attributes that may be considered desirable in one culture (for example, assertiveness) may be viewed as inappropriate and, thus, not related to emotional wellness in another.²⁰ One way to approach these variations is to ask women to examine what cultural values they grew up with and if these values are helpful and healthy for them, and then help them to make decisions about negotiating these values while staying connected to their culture of origin.

If you do not have the resources or time to adapt emotional wellness messages culturally, you can target messages around universal themes related to emotional wellness. For example:

• Emotional wellness is linked to better physical health and greater life satisfaction.
• Every woman can learn how to improve her emotional wellness.
• Women can improve their emotional wellness through simple tips and activities to appreciate themselves, find their balance and purpose, and connect with others.

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