Behavioral & Mental Health

Nation­al Pet Day is a time to cel­e­brate the fur­ry (or feath­ery, or scaled!) com­pan­ions who enrich our lives. But beyond the cud­dles and cute antics, pets offer a sur­pris­ing range of ben­e­fits for our phys­i­cal and men­tal health.

Our Quin­cy Med­ical Group Behav­ioral Health team shared some ways pets can be ben­e­fi­cial for your well-being:

Moth­er­hood comes with a lot of joy, but it can also bring unique chal­lenges and strug­gles. As moms, it’s nat­ur­al to pri­or­i­tize the needs of our chil­dren, and it’s equal­ly impor­tant to take care of our­selves. Accord­ing to Post­par­tum Sup­port Inter­na­tion­al, one out of five women are affect­ed by mater­nal men­tal health dis­or­ders includ­ing post­par­tum depres­sion, anx­i­ety, OCD, bipo­lar, PTSD, and psychosis.

Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) will join a nation­wide project and host a com­mu­ni­ty game event at First Bap­tist Church, 739 N. 8^th St. in Quin­cy on Wednes­day, July 9 at 5:30 pm to engage com­mu­ni­ties in impor­tant con­ver­sa­tions about med­ical deci­sion mak­ing. The event, fea­tur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion game Hel­lo, will pro­vide infor­ma­tion about how to pre­pare for future deci­sions about seri­ous and crit­i­cal health issues.