Health

Behavioral Health vs. Mental Health: Battle conformity

Does “behavioral health” connote conformity? Is that wrong?

Posted November 17, 2009

When I posted a couple of weeks ago about the concept of "behavioral health," I received a number of very thoughtful and interesting responses. A couple of commenters addressed the idea that behavioral health connotes conforming to society's expectations for behavior, which is different from mental health. I'd definitely agree, and I think that's pat of why I struggle with the term. When I was training as a social worker, I was struck by how much of the work is about getting people to fit a mold - perhaps a mold that does not fit them.

I've included excerpts that I found particularly thought-provoking below:

Mandy Harris wrote: "If a guy walked into an ER, bleeding profusely from a bullet wound in his leg, we would not diagnose him as having a ‘bleeding disorder.'

The behaviors associated with mental illness are symptoms of something else. Nowhere in medicinal vernacular should we advocate naming an illness for its symptoms rather than for the origin of the illness."

Mandy went on to say: "Behavioral health sounds like crazy people running amok because they don't know how to behave. Stick them in a straight jacket or dope them up so that they do not behave badly then they would stop being behaviorally ill, yet would remain mentally ill.

Stick with mental health and encourage the public to see the brain as they do their hearts or pancreas: as something that can occasionally not work optimally and as an organ that requires good care."

Marik Bromine wrote: "Behavioral health conjures images of dog training or potty training, a rather Pavlovian approach to this confounding notion of how we are to exist.

Really, I think what you seek is a term that might describe the guidance, knowledge, practices, and tools required for one to derive the greatest benefits from life while minimizing the harm and dangers (to self and others) that might result from living recklessly, carelessly or unhealthily."

In the work of suicide prevention, the ultimate behavior change is eliminating, or at least decreasing, behaviors that result in suicide. But, thinking of all that lies beneath suicidal behavior, I have to think that mental health (or perceptual health, or life health, or emotional health) is a more suitable term.