Author: Gulfcoasthc

Keeping Our Community Safe With COVID Vaccines

Did you know that when you get vaccinated for COVID-19, you’re not only protecting yourself from the virus, but you’re also helping to make the people around you and our communities safer?

Keeping Our Community Safe With COVID Vaccines

Did you know that when you get vaccinated for COVID-19, you’re not only protecting yourself from the virus, but you’re also helping to make the people around you and our communities safer?
That’s right – choosing to get vaccinated for novel coronavirus (or any contagious disease for that matter) actually protects the entire community in which you live – even those who are not yet vaccinated or cannot yet be vaccinated like young children. Plus, the more people who choose to get vaccinated, the safer our communities will be.
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How Does Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine Protect the Community?

The more people who are vaccinated in a community, the less easily a contagious disease, like the novel coronavirus, can spread because fewer people can contract and transmit the disease. When fewer people are walking around susceptible to COVID-19, it won’t spread as rapidly.
The threshold of vaccinated individuals needed to stop the spread altogether is called herd immunity or community immunity. The percentage of the population needed to achieve community immunity varies based on how contagious a disease is to begin with. For example, with highly contagious measles, 94% of the population needs to be vaccinated to achieve community immunity to entirely stop the spread of measles.
The exact threshold percentage needed to stop the spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus is not yet known, but it is certain that the more people who receive the vaccine, the safer our communities will be.

How Many People Are Vaccinated in Texas?

As of the writing of this article about 33% of Texans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
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Who's Eligible to Get Vaccinated for COVID-19 in Texas?

In Texas, anyone who is currently 18 or older is eligible to receive all vaccines. Individuals who are 12 years or older are authorized to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

Schedule Your COVID-19 Vaccination With Gulf Coast Health Center

If you have not yet scheduled an appointment to get your COVID-19 vaccination, we welcome you to contact any of our Gulf Coast Health Center locations in Texas to schedule your first and/or second round of COVID-19 vaccines.
Our clinics have a supply of both the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations. Both of these vaccines require two doses to achieve an immune response that will provide adequate protection against the novel coronavirus.
To learn more about getting your COVID-19 vaccine and how doing so will help protect you and the health of your community, we invite you to contact Gulf Coast Health Center today.
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Turning to Alcohol Use During COVID-19: Why It’s Harmful to the Body and Mind

Unwinding with a glass of wine or a beer might seem like an easy way to cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it might be doing you more harm than good. If you’ve been using alcohol to dampen the pandemic’s emotional weight, we recommend talking with a doctor or counselor and finding alternative ways to de-stress.

Turning to Alcohol Use During COVID-19: Why It's Harmful to the Body and Mind

With the lockdowns and quarantines that began in early 2020, a deluge of jokes appeared online about afternoon drinking and mixing “quarantinis.” However, these jokes and new drink recipes weren’t kidding.
People actually did significantly increase alcohol consumption. At the beginning of the Stop the Spread campaign in the U.S., alcohol sales skyrocketed. According to Nielsen, national alcohol sales increased 54% during the week that ended on March 20, 2020, and online alcohol sales were up 262% compared to 2019.
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What's So Bad About Alcohol Consumption?

Although unwinding with a glass of wine or a beer might seem like a simple way to cope with the unprecedented stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, it might actually be doing you more harm than good. Turning to alcohol to ease one’s worries can actually exacerbate feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression.
Additionally, consuming too much alcohol on a consistent basis increases a variety of health risks such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver disease, obesity, cancer, depression, suicide, and alcohol-related accidents. It can also lead to dangerous interactions with prescription medications and hinder a person’s overall brain function.
If that’s not enough to melt the ice in your margarita, alcohol consumption can also compromise your immune system, putting you at an increased risk of becoming seriously ill if you contract COVID-19 or any other contagious disease.

How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?

Everyone’s threshold varies depending on sex, weight, and unique metabolic factors. Federal health guidelines define moderate alcohol consumption as one drink per day for women and one or two drinks a day for men. These guidelines define heavy consumption or binge drinking as consuming five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women within a two-hour period.

Coping During a Pandemic

If you’ve been using alcohol to dampen the pandemic’s emotional weight, we recommend talking with a doctor or counselor and looking for other ways to de-stress. Cook yourself healthy meals and consider adding a daily walk, meditation, or alcohol-free living room dance party to your daily routine. Making a point to stay connected with the people you care about can help, too.

Counseling Services with Gulf Coast Health Center

You don’t have to struggle on your own. If you’re feeling lonely, stressed, or depressed and find yourself turning to alcohol for comfort, please reach out. We offer a variety of counseling services that can help you navigate the challenges of living during a pandemic. To learn more about counseling, telemedicine services, or to schedule an appointment, contact Gulf Coast Health Center.

Reasons You Need to Get a Flu Shot (This Year More Than Ever Before)

What does COVID-19 have to do with a vaccine designed to prevent a completely different virus? Read on to learn why it’s essential to get your flu vaccine now.

Reasons You Need to Get a Flu Shot (This Year More Than Ever Before)

Every year, doctors encourage their patients to protect themselves from the influenza virus with an annual flu vaccine. However, getting vaccinated for influenza is more important than ever before because, this year, the 2020-2021 flu season coincides with the novel coronavirus pandemic. So, what does COVID-19 have to do with a vaccine designed to prevent a completely different virus?
Read on to learn why it’s essential to get your flu vaccine now.
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Top 5 Reasons to Get a Flu Vaccine in 2020

1. Overlapping Symptoms

COVID-19 and influenza share many similar symptoms. People who develop a fever, cough, congestion, or body aches might have to self-quarantine for several days to protect others from potentially contracting coronavirus. It goes without saying but quarantining can seriously interrupt work, school, and other regular commitments. By protecting yourself from influenza, you’ll prevent the need to self-quarantine due to influenza symptoms that could be mistaken for signs of COVID-19.

2. Strained Healthcare Resources

We vaccinate against influenza because it has the potential to make people seriously ill – ill to the point of requiring hospitalization. In the midst of the pandemic with hospitalization numbers growing, healthcare systems in the United States all already strained under tremendous, unprecedented pressure. Flu vaccinations will prevent a major influenza season from compounding the current strain on healthcare workers, hospital beds, and other medical resources.

3. Vaccination Is Safe and Effective

Despite the rumors, you cannot get the flu from a flu vaccine. While vaccination has some normal reactions like a mild fever, adverse reactions are rarely serious and mild reactions clear up after a day or two. Before getting any vaccination, be sure to talk with your healthcare provider about any past reactions or allergies you have had to vaccinations or medications.

4. Less-Severe Illness

Each year, researchers do their best to predict which strains of influenza will be the most prevalent and serious in the upcoming flu season, and they develop their vaccines based on these projections. Whether this year’s influenza vaccine protects against the specific strain that’s spreading in our community or not, vaccination will still protect you from influenza by minimizing the severity of symptoms and duration of illness should you contract a different strain of influenza.

5. Future Protection

Influenza vaccines also offer compounding protection from flu that recipients benefit from for years to come.

Get a Flu Shot at Gulf Coast Health Center

If you have yet to get your flu shot this year, now’s the perfect time to schedule an appointment to safeguard your health and support our local healthcare workers. Contact Gulf Coast Health Center to schedule your flu shot or to find a clinic or pharmacy providing flu shots near you.

How Healthcare Nonprofits Benefit Your Community

When a person visits the doctor, dentist, psychologist, optometrist, or emergency room, they usually don’t even think about whether the clinic or hospital is a nonprofit or for-profit entity.

How Healthcare Nonprofits Benefit Your Community

When a person visits the doctor, dentist, psychologist, optometrist, or emergency room, they usually don’t even think about whether the clinic or hospital is a nonprofit or for-profit entity. Yes, these types of entities have different responsibilities when it comes to paying taxes, but there are also important distinctions between the two that results in nonprofit healthcare providers playing an important, irreplaceable role in our communities.
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6 Ways Nonprofit Healthcare Providers Benefit the Community

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1. Lower Cost, Same Quality

Nonprofit healthcare providers don’t answer to investors, don’t have to worry about reinvestment, and they aren’t focused on financial growth. However, they are held to the same quality of standards as for-profit healthcare entities. As a result, patients of nonprofit healthcare providers enjoy the same level of care at a much lower price.

2. Community Outreach and Orientation

Nonprofit healthcare providers answer to their board of directors and the community. As a result, they’re focused on providing higher quality community outreach programs, certain services for free, listening to community feedback, and orienting their services to their community’s specific needs.

3. Accessibility

Regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, all healthcare providers are required to provide care to stabilize patients who are in danger. Once patients are stabilized, for-profit providers can lawfully discharge patients who can’t afford ongoing care. Nonprofit healthcare providers are required to treat all patients, regardless of the direness or severity of their situation. Life-threatening or not, able to pay or not, nonprofits treat all patients in all conditions.

4. Uncompensated Care

Nonprofits are also expected to provide a certain percentage of their care for free. As a result, they often forgive unpaid bills and offer community clinics free of charge.

5. Don't Pay for Unnecessary Services

Since nonprofit healthcare providers aren’t worried about satisfying investors or achieving financial growth, they have no incentive to administer or excessively up-charge patients for non-essential services like aspirin or inexpensive laboratory tests.

6. Variety of Services

Nonprofit healthcare providers tend to offer a wider variety of services than for-profit healthcare entities. As a result, patients can access all the services and specialists they need in a single location.

Learn How Gulf Coast Health Center Can Benefit You

With five locations and a mobile medical center, we specialize in providing high-quality, affordable healthcare services to residents of Southeast Texas. As a nonprofit healthcare provider, we strive to make high-quality medical care accessible to everyone. Gulf Coast Health Center offers general health and wellness, behavioral care, dental, vision care, and more to patients!
To learn more about our services or to schedule an appointment, we welcome you to contact the Gulf Coast Health Center location nearest you.
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It’s Safe to Donate Blood – And It’s Needed Now More Than Ever!

Although we’re all living through a time of global change, one thing has remained the same: the demand for blood donations.

It's Safe to Donate Blood – And It's Needed Now More Than Ever!

Although we’re all living through a time of global change, one thing has remained the same: the demand for blood donations. Unlike non-perishable items you can simply stock up on and use as needed, fresh blood donations are constantly in use and in demand in a variety of essential, life-saving treatments. Due to the dangers of the pandemic and related regional closures, blood drives have been canceled and individual blood donation appointments have understandably dropped off, putting many communities across the United States at risk of facing critical shortages.

Why Your Blood Donation Is Needed Now More Than Ever

In spite of the pandemic putting parts of our daily lives on pause, the need for blood donations has remained the same. Every two seconds, someone in the United States requires platelets or blood. Life-saving transplant surgeries are still happening, traumatic injuries occur every day, babies continue to be born, cancer patients still need supportive care, and individuals with immune deficiencies continue to depend on blood transfusions.
With the reduced number of blood donations, the demand for donor blood is at risk of outweighing the supply, which could put countless lives at risk. The blood supply has grown so small that companies like Amazon have even responded with promotions to spur donations across the country.

COVID-19 and the Need for Donated Plasma

Adding to the demand for blood donations, some COVID-19 patients are being treated with experimental infusions that use convalescent plasma from blood donors who have already recovered from COVID-19. Patients with COVID-19 do not typically require treatment with blood transfusions Convalescent plasma, however, contains antibodies that have shown promising results when used to treat patients who are currently suffering.
If you are 17 years or older, have recovered from COVID-19, and are interested in donating, you can find additional information or sign up to give COVID-19 convalescent plasma on the American Red Cross website.

Yes, It's Safe to Donate Blood During the Pandemic

We are all taking precautions to keep ourselves safe from contracting novel coronavirus, but it’s safe to donate blood. Clinics and donation centers have always prioritized sanitization, but they are taking special precautions to keep their valuable donors safe during the pandemic. In addition to increasing cleaning procedures and wearing masks at all times, they’ve also taken steps to social distance donors and limit the number of donors in the clinics at the same time.

Be a Hero: Find Out If You're Eligible and Sign Up to Donate

To register as a blood donor, you must meet eligibility requirements which include age and weight restrictions in addition to being generally healthy. Next, find a blood drive or donation center near you!
To learn more or find out if you’re eligible to be a donor, we welcome you to contact a Gulf Coast Health Center location near you.

Simple Reasons Why Wearing a Mask Works

Despite the mixed messages, we should all wear masks because they have been scientifically shown to help slow the spread of respiratory diseases such as COVID-19.

Simple Reasons Why Wearing a Mask Works

For Americans who don’t work in healthcare, wearing a mask is a relatively new concept. Since the early days of the pandemic, there has been quite a bit of confusion about whether masks are effective. Despite the mixed messaging, we should all wear masks because they have been scientifically shown to help slow the spread of respiratory diseases like COVID-19.
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How Respiratory Disease Spreads

When a person sneezes, coughs, sings, shouts, or talks at a normal volume, they expel and project droplets of moisture from their mouths and noses. (Check out this high-speed video experiment to see it in action.) If a person is infected with coronavirus (or any type of respiratory virus), they’ll expel the virus along with the droplets. If anyone inhales those particles or gets them in their eyes, then they could catch the virus, too.

Why Masks Work

Like putting a shield over your mouth and nose, masks help block the aspirated droplets of virus that could be projected from our mouths and noses. Think of the difference between driving a car with or without a windshield. Similar to the way your car’s windshield catches all the bugs before they splat onto your face, a mask blocks droplets of saliva and mucus before they splat onto anyone else’s face.

Do Masks Protect the Person Wearing Them?

When wearing a mask, you’ll lower your risk of potentially inhaling virus particles, but you could still be exposed to viruses through the membranes in your eyes. To create a low-risk environment for everyone, it’s important for us all to wear masks.

Wear a Mask to Help Slow the Spread and Reduce the Risk of COVID-19

Since people with COVID-19 don’t always have symptoms, it’s not obvious who’s sick and should actually be wearing a mask to protect the people around them. As a result, masks most effectively slow the spread of coronavirus when more people wear them – even those who have no signs of illness – because symptomatic or asymptomatic anyone could potentially be spreading the disease.
Wearing masks works best when more people do it, and there’s plenty of scientific research that demonstrates this point. One study showed that mask mandates slowed the growth rates of COVID-19. Another found that populations with existing societal norms of wearing masks had lower COVID-19 mortality rates.
However you look at it, it’s clear that populations that wear masks slow the spread of respiratory viruses. Our healthcare professionals at Gulf Coast Health Center strongly urge you to adopt the practice of wearing a mask. To learn more about slowing the spread of COVID-19 and the most effective types of face coverings, we welcome you to contact your healthcare provider today.

Even Happy People Can Benefit from Seeing a Therapist

Talking with a therapist can be incredibly useful for people who consider themselves to be happy, content, and mentally healthy. Therapists can help you set, recalibrate, and strategize to achieve intelligent and lasting goals for yourself.

Even Happy People Can Benefit from Seeing a Therapist

When most people think about counseling, they associate the treatment with extreme situations like severe depression, abuse, and anxiety disorders. Everyone is right that therapy is essential to overcoming serious situations in life. The truth is, though, talking with a therapist can also be incredibly useful for people who consider themselves to be happy, content, and mentally healthy.

How Counseling Could Help You

Asking for advice in life is never off-limits; it’s also perfectly acceptable (and smart!) to seek life advice from a highly trained and experienced professional. Therapists can help you set, recalibrate, and strategize to achieve intelligent and lasting goals for yourself.
While it might seem like an easy task, figuring out what you actually want out of life can be tricky. Are your current life goals going to be fulfilling in the long run? Do you know what you need to do to achieve those goals? How will you react and adjust if your goals change over time? How will you handle and overcome potential failure?
A professional counselor can provide you with helpful strategies to determine your answers to all of these questions. In therapy, you’ll learn to identify patterns in your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and determine whether these patterns hold you back or propel you toward your goals.
Whether you could use help with learning to develop your time management skills, being more assertive at work or at home, navigating your personal or professional relationships, or kicking a bad habit, counseling can help. Therapy can provide you with all the tools you need to maintain a balanced and well-rounded lifestyl, to avoid serious pitfalls in life, and to continue working toward become an ever-improving version of yourself.
No matter what (good or bad) life brings your way, therapy will prepare you to handle it in the best possible way.

Therapy as Preventative Care

In the same way that it’s better to catch physical ailments and begin treatment early on, it’s also helpful to detect potential emotional or mental problems early. If working with a therapist can help you detect a potential problem and address it before it has a chance to develop into a serious roadblock in your life, then more power to you!
Having a mental and emotional check-in with an unbiased professional about your life goals, career, relationships, health habits, and family before any real problems arise can be incredibly helpful with continuing to move in the right direction and staying on a successful life path.

Schedule a Check-In at Gulf Coast Health Center

At Gulf Coast Health Center, we encourage patients to take advantage of our counseling services. Contact a location near you to schedule an appointment with a professional therapist.

Healthy Habits to Protect Yourself from COVID-19

With a healthy mind and body and smart sanitary practices, you can keep yourself and your family safe and healthy. Take these precautions to protect yourself from COVID-19.

Healthy Habits to Protect Yourself from COVID-19

When novel coronavirus is spreading like wildfire through Texas, take precautions to protect yourself from COVID-19. Practicing healthy habits and keeping your body strong will help keep you safe during the pandemic. With a healthy mind and body and smart sanitary practices, you can keep yourself and your family safe and healthy.

Bolster Your Immune System Against COVID-19

To boost your immune system, eat a well-rounded diet of highly nutritious foods. Try to fill each of your meals and snacks with lean proteins and fruits and vegetables in every color of the rainbow. In addition, it’s important to get enough quality sleep because the efficacy of your body’s immune response depends on a well-rested body.

Get a Healthy Mind, Healthy Body During the Pandemic

Weight, fitness, and cardiovascular health are major factors that determine the severity of COVID-19 in different individuals. Getting your body into shape with aerobic exercise is a great way to manage weight, increase lung capacity, and strengthen your lungs and heart. Plus, exercise releases feel-good endorphins that’ll help you stay happy and reduce the excess stress brought on by living through such a difficult time.
Respiratory health is essential for fighting off COVID-19. If you’re a smoker, quit now to reduce your risk of severe illness.

Limit Your Exposure to the Novel Coronavirus by Practicing Social Distancing

Remember that, when it comes to COVID-19, not everyone who’s contagious has symptoms. So, it’s important to practice social or physical distancing. Before deciding whether it’s safe to attend a group gathering or to spend time indoors with people outside of your family, assess the potential risk of the event or gathering you’re considering attending.
If you must be around other people, protect yourself and your family from COVID-19 by wearing a mask and staying at least six feet apart from others at all times. Limit your exposure to potentially infected people by practicing the social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Use Smart Sanitary Practices to Keep Your Body and Your Environment Germ-Free

Don’t touch your face. Wash your hands after going anywhere public, before preparing food, before eating, after interacting with animals, and after using the restroom. If you don’t have access to a sink, use a safe hand sanitizer to disinfect your hands until soap and water are available. Use an EPA-approved disinfectant to sanitize your home and work environment, focusing on high-traffic and high-touch areas.

Learn More about Novel Coronavirus, Testing, and What You Can Do to Stay Safe

To learn more about COVID-19, testing centers near you, and keep your body strong and healthy, we welcome you to contact a Gulf Coast Health Center location near you.

Why Telehealth Has Become More Important Than Ever Before

During the COVID-19 crisis, telemedicine has become the champion of ongoing wellness care and chronic disease management because it allows patients, especially those who are considered to be high risk, to access medical care and keep in touch with their doctors without risking exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Why Telehealth Has Become More Important Than Ever Before

Telemedicine, the practice of seeing and treating patients via electronic means, has always provided a convenient option for healthcare providers and patients to come together. Emails, over-the-phone appointments, and video conference calls have helped patients access regular medical care and reduce gaps in their healthcare. Whether a patient is homebound, lives far away from the doctor, or faces issues with finding reliable transportation, telemedicine offers a simple solution. Telemedicine also helps patients seek expert care – without travel – when nearby medical specialists are limited.
So yes, telemedicine has always been a powerful tool in the modern medical professional’s doctor bag, but until now it has been underutilized.

Why Is Telemedicine More Important Now Than Ever?

During the COVID-19 crisis, telemedicine has become the champion of ongoing wellness care and chronic disease management because it allows patients, especially those who are considered to be high risk, to access medical care and keep in touch with their doctors without risking exposure to the novel coronavirus. During this worldwide healthcare crisis, social distancing to limit exposing yourself or potentially exposing others to illness, has become essential to public safety.
In spite of the importance of social distancing and preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s still extremely important to keep up with regular healthcare. You should not delay your wellness examinations, follow-up appointments, or appointments aimed at managing a chronic illness. While it’s important to stop the spread of coronavirus, it’s equally important that you maintain your personal health and wellbeing.
With the capabilities of telehealth, patients can do both! Telemedicine allows patients to schedule follow-up appointments with their doctors, get prescriptions renewed, and seek medical advice – all from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Experience the Convenience of Telehealth and Remote Medical Care with Gulf Coast Health Center

In addition to telehealth and telemedicine services, Gulf Coast Health Center provides patients the convenience of prescription refills through an easy-to-use mobile application and access to their health charts and records via our secure online patient portal.
Whether you’re an existing patient or are new to Gulf Coast Health Center, we welcome you to schedule an online telehealth appointment with one of our providers. To safely access expert medical care from anywhere, all you need is an internet connection and a computer or mobile phone equipped with both a camera and a microphone.
To learn more about telehealth with Gulf Coast Health Center or scheduling an in-person appointment during the novel coronavirus pandemic, we encourage you to call the location nearest you today.

Coronavirus and Your Mental Wellbeing

The whole world is experiencing fears, worries, and changes to normal daily life that are unprecedented in our lifetimes. Not only are we having new anxieties, but many of us are unable to cope with the stress in the same ways we normally would, primarily by getting out of the house and spending time with loved ones.

Coronavirus and Your Mental Wellbeing

The current pandemic has placed an excessive strain on our mental wellbeing. The whole world is experiencing fears, worries, and changes to normal daily life that are unprecedented in our lifetimes. Not only are we having new anxieties, but many of us are unable to cope with the stress in the same ways we normally would, primarily by getting out of the house and spending time with loved ones. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, unable to complete tasks, increasingly irritable, lonely, or crying easily, consider the following advice from our behavioral health team to calm your anxiety.

Ways to Cope with the Stress During the Pandemic

Accept

It’s okay to acknowledge and accept the fact that the current situation is stressful. It’s okay to feel anxious. Don’t get frustrated with yourself if you have these feelings. Instead, focus on controlling what you can in your life. Concentrate on maintaining your routines, exercise, personal hygiene, and nutrition.

Act

Fill your time with positive, calming activities. Create a routine with things like meditation, walking, reading, gardening, and making art. Use this time to try a new hobby or to learn something new.

Connect

We’re fortunate to have modern technology that makes it easier than ever to stay connected even when we can’t travel or mix households. Schedule a time to video chat with your friends or family. Or get away from screens altogether to play with your children and pets.

Take a Break

Although it’s good to stay informed, it’s also smart to take a break from the news. Watching endlessly or even just letting news channels play in the background of your day to day life can induce additional stress. Try to limit your time with the news and only listen to reports from trusted, reputable sources.

Practice Gratitude

No matter how stressful a situation might be, we can always find reasons to be grateful. Focusing on the things you appreciate in your life (family, friends, health, shelter, food, pets, or the cool breeze coming off the ocean) has the power to calm. Set aside time to write a gratitude list and read it whenever you feel down.

Reach Out

Pay attention to your own behavior, feelings, and thoughts to identify warning signs of trauma, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Contact behavioral health services at Gulf Coast Health Center, if you are feeling angry, irritable, or isolated, if you have trouble sleeping, suffer nightmares, can’t stay focused, or can’t stop crying. Remember that you are not alone. We are here for you, and we can help.