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Show You can learn to cope with problems (Editor's Note: This is one in a series of articles on mental health by staff members mem-bers of the Four Corners Community Mental Health Center.) By Bob Greenberg In the field of mental health an ounce of prevention is probably worth a ton of cure. While professionals do not know everything about the causes of mental illness they can save a great deal of pain and unhappiness by using what they do know. There is a clear relationship between mental disorders and the lack of medical attention. The brain and nervous system of the child, both before and after birth are delicate. Disease Dis-ease and poor nutrition can cause later mental problems. A program of good prenatal care for the expectant mother will pay off in reducing the chances of the child having mental problems. Likewise, a doctor's care at the time of delivery can play an important impor-tant part in safe-guarding the mental health of the infant. Early infant care and immunizations immun-izations for children are also important. In short, medical care for the expectant mother and the young child are things that we know help prevent mental illness. Part of this medical care is the expert advice on diet and nutrition that a doctor or public health nurse can give. Good nutrition for expectant mothers and children is vital to healthy mental development. develop-ment. Actually, good nutrition plays an important part in preventing mental disorders for all people. This is especially espec-ially true for senior citizens where good diet may make a difference in years of the start of senility. This is one reason that senior citizen nutritional programs are so important. There is a relationship between be-tween mental health and the ways we learn to cope with common life crisis situations. Everyone experiences situations situa-tions in life which can produce great stress: the separation of a mother and child when the child first enters school, a death in the family, the adolescent's adol-escent's struggle for independence, indepen-dence, pregnancy, child rearing rear-ing and retirement. The amount of stress that is felt in these situations can be reduced by preparing ourselves our-selves to cope with them. The schools, churches and social agencies all sponsor programs aimed at developing one's skills to cope with these life crisis situations. In addition, one can give personal support to family and friends who are in the middle of a life crisis. Reducing stress allows our better selves to guide our behavior. Our ability to cope increases. increas-es. When one has learned skills to deal with stress and has support during times of stress his ability to successfully success-fully solve problems increases. increas-es. This lessens the possibility that one will respond to stress situations with problem behavior. be-havior. It establishes a pattern pat-tern of coping in times of stress instead of a cycle of problem behavior which once established can be very hard to break. These are a few things that can prevent mental illness , before it starts. Twenty-one million families in the United States are affected by mental illness from someone in the immediate family- more than one in four. Everything that can be done to prevent mental illness is well worth th effort |