Mental Health and Wellness Trends: Analysis and Implications Report

This report examines current trends in mental health and wellness, focusing on online counseling, nutrition, and their influence on mental health professionals. The report highlights the increasing use of online counseling, including Skype therapy and online group therapy, as well as the growing emphasis on nutrition's role in mental well-being. It discusses how these trends are shaping the practice of mental health professionals, enabling them to reach wider audiences and provide more comprehensive care. The report also explores the impact of online platforms on service delivery, including the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of online counseling, and the importance of understanding the relationship between dietary choices and mental health disorders. The report is supported by references to academic literature, providing a robust foundation for its analysis of the trends and their implications.

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PART ONE
Q1. What are the current trends in mental health and wellness?
Mental health and wellness field is constantly changing with time. The Following are some of
the trends in the field.
Online Counseling
Online counseling is increasingly becoming popular among many counseling providers
It is one of the top trends in meant health and wellness. It is the process of providing counseling
services through the internet. The main therapies involved in online counseling are Skype
therapy email, therapy, and video conferencing therapy among others. As a result of online
counseling, mental health and wellness service users can meet with a counselor online at the
comfort of their homes; it therefore overcomes barriers that may prevent some people from
seeking counseling services (Barak & Grohol,2017). These services are also easily available
Focus on Nutrition
The debate on nutrition and its role in mental health and wellness continue to range on between
professionals and common citizenry on the role of nutrition in mental health and wellness.
Among the issues, professionals seek to unravel is the relationship between bad diet and mental
health disorders (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015). There are those of the idea that bad dietary
choices lead to mental health disorders and those of the idea that mental disorders such as stress
make people yearn for bad diet.
Q2. How do these trends influence the practice of mental health professionals?

Trends such as the emphasis on nutrition have enabled professionals to become more effective in
their practice by creating avenues for understanding the interrelationships between dietary
choices and mental health. This has enabled them to have a deeper understanding of mental
disorders that come as a result of poor diet choices including those related to obesity as well as
creating a deeper understanding of the role of correct dietary choices on the correct functioning
of the brain. Online counseling has also allowed professionals to offer their services to wider
audiences with much ease (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015).
PART 2
Q2. Online Counseling trends
Shifting to Skype for Online counseling sessions
According to recent studies, counseling service providers relying on the internet are shifting
towards the use of video conferencing to provide their services to patients. Skype has become the
main method of choice for many psychologists and psychiatrists. The popularity of Skype has
partly been because of the flexibility that it comes with it for both clients and therapists, it also
minimizes travel expenses hence enabling therapists to charge fewer fees and reduces chances of
appointments being canceled due to various reasons and facilitates continuation of services even
after relocation of a therapist(Barak & Grohol,2017).
Online Group therapy
As a result of online counseling, online group therapy concept has also emerged. Online group
therapy is used to refer to a form of psychotherapy in which a group of patients comes to discuss
their problems supervised by a therapist in an online setting. Online group therapy brings
together under a therapeutic setting people sharing similar experiences and might be an effective

strategy for people with limited resources. Online group therapy has also adopted the use of
online group chats and messaging to facilitate comprehensive discussions among members of the
group (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015).

Reference List
Barak, A., & Grohol, J. M. (2017). Current and future trends in internet-supported mental health
interventions. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 29(3), 155-196.
Olfson, M., Druss, B. G., & Marcus, S. C. (2015). Trends in mental health care among children
and adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(21), 2029-2038.