Defining Behavioral Health
One of the key pieces of feedback throughout the Washington Thriving work has been the need to better define what “behavioral health” means. Three primary reasons for clearly defining this term identified by community members are the need to:
Define behavioral health in a way that is easily understood by children and youth;
Define behavioral health in a way that helps to minimize or eliminate the stigma often associated with the term; and
Help educate and communicate to the broader community that behavioral health needs should be viewed and treated in the same way the system currently approaches physical health needs. Many of the folks participating in this discussion shared that existing common definitions of Behavioral Health use technical language not familiar to everyone, aren’t inclusive of all aspects and intersections that people with lived and living experience define as a part of their own behavioral health, and often focus on illness or disorder but exclude health and wellness.
Through several sessions with youth and young people, parents and caregivers, practitioners and systems partners across the community, Washington Thriving has been workshopping a community-developed proposed definition of Behavioral Health that better addresses these insights and goals:
“Behavioral health involves the interaction between a person’s body, brain, and the people and places around them and includes the feelings and actions that can affect one’s overall well-being. Behavioral health can:
Impact how a person relates to and interacts with their families and communities and maintains long-term positive relationships that are vital for well-being
Affects a person’s physical body and overall well-being in the same way that a short-term or long-term illness might
Stem from many things, including the stress and trauma they have experienced or are experiencing or challenges with substances or other ways of coping that get in the way of overall well-being
Can include a broad range of diagnoses and can change or be exacerbated by lack of intervention
Coincide with other things, including the impacts of communities’ being under-resourced, homelessness, disruption of schooling, challenges finding employment, and youth being at risk of incarceration. These other things can be both a “cause of” or “result of” behavioral health challenges
Lead to children, youth, and young adults struggling to navigate life, maintain positive relationships, achieve their educational goals, and adapt to change
Intersect with intellectual and developmental disabilities and compound their behavioral health. Over time, as children and youth grow and develop, these challenges change
Be impacted even before birth and through exposure to maternal stress or substances and/or poor social and emotional connections during the earliest months and years of life”
Developing a shared language is a foundational piece in developing a shared understanding at the state level of what is necessary to include in the strategic plan, responding to the lived and living experience of Washingtonians by their own definition of what comprises the full range of behavioral health services and supports necessary for young people and their families to thrive.
This definition continues to develop as Washington Thriving integrates additional voices and perspectives into the process. If you have suggestions or ideas for how to improve our definition further, please email the Washington Thriving project team at info@washingtonthriving.org.