Using Technology to Get You Healthier

Wellness refers to the choices you make and activities you engage in that lead to an improved or optimal state of overall health and quality of life. Wellness will look different for each person depending on their goals and values, and you may not associate conventional healthcare services with wellness. This can be due to the view that conventional healthcare is there to intervene in periods of illness in your life that remove you from your optimal state of wellness. However, health centres can support patients to maintain or improve their overall wellness through a range of services and clinics that are now widely available and can often be accessed via self-referral. So, if you're working on your personal wellness at the moment, read on to see how your health centre could support you.

Physical Wellness 

Physical wellness can incorporate exercise, nutrition, weight management, sleep and addiction recovery. Health centres often run weight management clinics that can help you set realistic goals and support you to achieve them. You may also have access to an on-site nutritionist or dietician to help you with any nutritional concerns and support you to develop healthy meal plans. If you're struggling with sleep issues, speak to your GP. They can run some tests to determine if there is an underlying health condition at play and can prescribe you medication to help you get enough sleep. If you are trying to stop smoking, make use of your health centre's smoking cessation clinic. They tend to be run by specially trained nurses who can help you find a route to giving up smoking that works for your lifestyle.

Emotional Wellness

If you're struggling with low mood, anxiety or depression, you don't need to try and cope alone. Health centres often run group and one-to-one emotional support services run by trained counsellors. You can also speak to your GP about the possibility of trying appropriate medication. It can take some time to find the right type of medication and the right dosage to help ease your symptoms, but your GP will work for as long as is necessary to get you back to feeling more like yourself.

Social Wellness

Connecting and engaging with others socially is an important part of wellness. If you are feeling socially isolated, find out if your medical centre offers a social prescribing service. This service gives you access to social groups that are run either by the medical centre or in your local community and they tend to have a focus on wellbeing and relationship building. The goal is to bring people together and create opportunities for connection through shared experiences.

These are just some of the ways a medical centre can support the patients' wellness goals. Get in touch with your own medical centre to find out what they offer and how to access their range of services.