● Reflect on how mental health plays a role in public health.

○ How has your previous knowledge about mental health changed?

Being in quarantine and with what’s going on today in our world, I realized how
mental health can affect someone in many ways. Before this situation, I never
stopped and thought so much about mental health. Along with today’s crisis, the
mental health crisis is increasing also. Throughout this pandemic, mental health
has been on the news often. Domestic violence, depression, stress, are often
mentioned. I didn’t really know much about mental health before this, but my
knowledge has grown so much in the past weeks.

○ What course content or learning has affected you most?

What has affected me the most is learning about mental health parity. Learning
about how cost was an issue for patients to have medical access. Eventhough the
2008 mental health parity law passed, cost still remained an issue.

○ How will you use your new knowledge in the future?

I will use my new knowledge in the future to help the people that surround me,
including my patients. I will pay attention to mental health signs. Also I will
reach to as many people as I can, ask how they are doing, listen,and offer my
help. I would to share my knowledge about mental health and its impact on life
with other people so more people can understand its importane.

● Reflect on the topic of self-care.

○ What did you previously know about self-care?

Previous to my classmate Emilee’s lecture, I thought selfcare was something that

only a vanity person would do to make them feel and look prettier. I thought
more of self-care like a luxury. When someone would say self care what came to
my mind was facemasks, having a bath, manicure, and pedicure.

○ What did you learn?

I learned about the negative effects that stress can have on various organ
systems in the body. Effects on the body ranges from increase blood pressure to
weak inmune response. I learned abou the two types of stress, the good stress
and the bad stress. Emilee also introduced us to the five categories of self-care:
Sensory, emotional, spiritual, physical, and social.
 ○ What course content or learning affected you most?

What impacted me the most was that the suicide rate is increasing instead of
decreasing. Also the fact that healthcare professionals have the most stress out of
all the other professions. I wonder why this is. For me being in the dental field
means a lot because I have the power to help and transforms people’s life.

○ How will you use your new knowledge in the future?

I will definitaly use what I learned from the self-care lecture and apply it to my
life. I want to be healthy physically and emotionally to do things I enjoy with the
people that I love. I will share my knowledge about self-care and it’s importance
with my patients and my family.