Research shows that people who experience mental health disorders have a higher relative risk of death than the general population, according to a
peer-reviewed study featured in the CDC. Those with mental illness diagnoses died at a younger age than natural causes including heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
To help combat this, the
St. Clair County Community Mental Health (SCCCMH) has adopted the InSHAPE
program to address the physical and mental health needs of clients.
InSHAPE is a fidelity-based program, developed by Ken Jue Consulting in 2002 to help prevent premature death among people with mental health disorders. The comprehensive approach helps educate and encourage folks on how to create healthy habits. Individualized plans with health mentors, certified personal trainers, and registered dieticians provide clients with the tools for creating and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Erika Rice is the supervisor at St. Clair County CMH for the InSHAPE program. Rice has been with the organization for 11 years and has been in her current role for a little over two years. The program started 11 years ago and has grown to include six staff members including health mentors and one licensed nutritionist.
“The program is for individuals who have serious mental health disorders to help exercise and find a good healthy diet so they can have better outcomes,” Rice says. “We know that people who have serious mental health disorders usually die 25 to 30 years before people who don’t have them. It’s a pretty big disparity in health and wellness for this group.”
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Erika Rice, Supervisor of SCCCMH's InSHAPE Program.
Rice speaks about some of the factors that lead to earlier deaths in this population.
“They’re often more likely to be excluded,” she says. “A lot of these folks have social security and are not in the workforce so they might have a more sedentary lifestyle. They might have never learned about health and wellness, and think they’re eating healthy and well but they’re not so we help them learn about fruits, vegetables and how many a day are suggested.”
Currently, the InSHAPE program is offered at the main office of SCCCMH in Port Huron, Marine City, Capac, and at the Children’s and Family Services locations. In order to sign up for the wellness program, clients must be 18 or older, have a severe mental illness, have one or multiple conditions including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or obesity, and be able to receive services in Lapeer, Sanilac or St. Clair County.
Rice says typically, InSHAPE participants have a high BMI, are pre-diabetic, have asthma, and need to strengthen their body to get healthier.
“If they don’t have a primary care physician, our case managers help link them with one so we can get a medical release. The other thing that’s important is that they have Medicaid because that’s how we are able to serve them,” she says.
Debra Johnson, CEO at St. Clair County CMH says the evidence-based program makes a real impact on mental health like anxiety and depression, by benefiting physical health too.
“In the first year of the program, the number of psychiatric hospitalizations was hugely reduced as a result of the InSHAPE program,” Johnson says. “We had one participant nominated for a Governor’s Award because he lost a couple hundred pounds and quit using substances.”
To get a good measure of the clients’ health, health mentors meet one-on-one with participants at the small gyms at the different CMH locations.
“The health mentors meet with them and do a six-minute walk to see where their health is,” Rice says. “That’s where they start with cardiovascular, weightlifting, or a combination of all three. They also take the person’s choice in mind because they've got to find it fun. We do water aerobics, we have a pickleball group, in the summer we do bike rides, and in the fall/winter we have a walking group in the mall.”
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InSHAPE staff Erin Sullivan and Erika Rice participate in a spin class at the YMCA .
For many, group workouts and activities help provide friendship and socialization which can benefit both the mental and physical health of participants.
Rice says the program has grown every year since its inception. She’s happy to see and hear about the success stories of those who have made healthy changes because of the program.
“We do celebrations at the end of every single quarter, and we had a dance party a couple of weeks ago,” she says. “Some of the individuals that were in that group could barely get out of bed and walk before joining InSHAPE. They have lost a significant amount of weight and were up dancing and having a good time, enjoying the camaraderie with their other InSHAPE participants, so it’s really amazing to see how well people take to this.”
Many participants have been able to change their diets, lose weight, and reduce or stop medications for physical and mental conditions. Participants can learn helpful workout tools at home using household objects like soup cans in place of weights, how to grow healthy foods in small porch pots, and more.
St. Clair County CMH also received an innovation award from the national InSHAPE program for its success.
“We’re always trying to think outside of the box on how to provide these services because there isn’t a YMCA in every community in our county,” Rice says. “We have connected with the conference center, and work with some of the facilities in Marine City, and work with the mall. We try to innovate to make sure people have access to exercise and equipment.”
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Jason Marocco, Adult Services Director at SCCCMH.
Jason Marocco, adult services director at St. Clair County CMH, says making these connections inside and outside of offices has a holistic impact on patient’s lives.
“The interplay between mental and physical health is so important,” he says. “When we’re not attending to our mental health, we develop all sorts of difficulties with our physical health. On the other side of that, with our physical health, we know there’s a high rate of depression and anxiety that go along with certain diagnoses.”
St. Clair County CMH utilizes integrated healthcare to better outcomes of the patient’s whole health, says Johnson.
“This organization has been promoting integrated healthcare, which means we look at people, we work with them, and look at their whole self,” she says. “We know that there are physical health conditions that impact your mental health, and there are mental health conditions that can affect your physical health. We provide integrated whole health care, and InSHAPE is one of the leading programs we have in our organization in terms of addressing physical health.”
Marocco says the organization has created and expanded other programs because of the InSHAPE program’s success including the
BFit services for children.
“This is such an important thing and if we can get children involved in it now, it’s more preventative. It does help their mental health now as well,” he says. “We really want to be able to incentivize and to get as many people involved in the programs as possible. We know that they have better health outcomes, so our goal with any program is to see those health and wellness programs grow.”