Patient Resources
Disclaimer: The content below are for informational purposes only. Always seek advice from a medical professional.
Helpful Websites
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: Support for understanding and preventing suicide
- Mass General:How to recognize and approach mental health issues
- MentalHealth.gov: Support and information for mental illness including veterans and eating disorders
- National Institute of Mental Health: Provides information regarding most disorders and treatments as well as clinical trials
- Facts for Families (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry): Provides information on issues that affect children, teenagers, and their families
- Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse: Addiction treatment and support for adolescents and adults in northwest Louisiana
- MedlinePlus: Comprehensive information for prescription drugs as well as supplements
- National alliance for mental Health: National and local mental health support group
- Womensmentalhealth.org: Mass General womens mental health program- informative information about mental health treatment in women in all stages of life
- Mothertobaby.org: hundreds of fact sheets on pregnancy/ lactation exposures
- Postpartum.net: offers postpartum support/ a helpline/ online support groups
- Saferbirth.org: offers alliance in maternal mental health
Informative Articles
- Reality check: Taking antidepressants while pregnant unlikely to double autism risk in kids
- Taking A Closer Look: Autism and Antidepressants
- PostPartum Depression: What to tell patients who breast feed
- Which SSRI’s are safest in Pregnancy ?
- Antidepressants and Pregnancy
- Atypical Antipsychotics during pregnancy
- Just how safe are SSRI’s ?
- Are Psychotropic drugs safe to use during pregnancy ?
- Using Antidepressants during Pregnancy: An Update
- Psychopharmacologic Management of Depression in Pregnant Women and Breastfeeding Mothers
- SSRI Use During Pregnancy and Autism: Is it a Real Threat ?
- Safety of Psychotropic medications in Breastfeeding
- Marijuana Facts
- Medical Marijuana
- Discontinuing Antidepressants
Useful mental health and wellness apps
Meditation and relaxation
- Headspace: Two-week free trial for the general public.
- Health Minds Program App: Always free. Meditation and mindfulness skills.
- Calm: Seven-day free trial. A meditation, sleep, and relaxation app.
- Stop, Breathe & Think: Always free, and for kids too.
- Insight Timer: Always free. This is not a daily app, but rather a great library where you can search for various types of meditations and lengths by excellent teachers.
- 10% Happier: Free and paid options available. (Seven days free, then $99 per year.)
- UCLA Mindful App: Free. Meditation by Diana Winston.
- Mindfulness Coach: Mindfulness Coach 2.0 was developed to help veterans, service members, and others learn how to practice mindfulness. The app provides a gradual, self-guided training program designed to help you understand and adopt a simple mindfulness practice.
Coping with anxiety and depression
- Sanvello: A program for reducing stress and treating anxiety and depression that includes a coach or groups.
- Meru Health: A program for clinical anxiety or depression that uses an app and therapist, and biofeedback monitor is optional. Referral from a health care provider is necessary.
- Happify: Some free content, including stress reduction and cognitive techniques to address anxiety.
- MindShift CBT: Free content, including cognitive behavioral therapy strategies to address general worry, social anxiety, and panic.
- PTSD Coach: Created by VA’s National Center for PTSD and the Department of Defense’s National Center for Telehealth & Technology. This app provides you with education about post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD.
- PTSD Family Coach: In conjunction with PTSD Coach, the PTSD Family Coach app is for family members of those living with PTSD. The app provides extensive information about PTSD, how to take care of yourself, how to take care of your relationship with your loved one or with children, and how to help your loved one get the treatment they deserve.
- Mothers and Babies Online Course: A well-validated, web-based program for depression (available in both English and Spanish) for pregnant women, new mothers, and those who want to support them.
- COVID Coach: Created for everyone, including veterans and service members, to support self-care and overall mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Spiral Up! Stress Overload App by EBT: Emotional brain training (EBT) turns toxic negative emotions into positive feelings in 1–2 minutes based on a new technology of emotion science (summary at ebt.org). The method’s free app is available at spiralup.org or at your app store as Spiral Up!
Insomnia
- CBT-i Coach – Free cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, available for iOS and Android.
