Mind, Body and Spirit Wellness
We believe an essential part of our clients’ wellness and recovery is to provide services that address the Mind, Body and Spirit. As part of this wellness package, we launched our culinary wellness initiative in 2011, hiring a culinary specialist with a gift for empowering and responding to those with mental health issues. Our goal is to provide the healthiest and most satisfying food to the people we serve. During the last decade, we have seen the evidence that refined sugars, flours, and fats are directly responsible for metabolic diseases such as diabetes. By reducing or eliminating these ingredients from our diet, we improve the quality of life and health of our clients.
Heart Healthy Diet
Crestwood has created our own menu system based on client choice and preference. It is a Heart Healthy diet. The menus and the recipes are also provided to staff because we believe that a healthy staff supports a healthy environment, practice and people. As the providers of the health and wellness of our clients, Crestwood has the opportunity and challenge to use this information by focusing our food-purchasing and dietary program on healthy behaviors. Crestwood was also recognized in our 2018 CARF survey for our Wellness Program and heart healthy diets in our facilities.
Download our PDF “Heart Healthy Diets”
Download our Nutrition and Wellness Outcomes Poster
Spirituality
Also as part of our Mind, Body and Spirit initiative , Crestwood launched in 2004 spirituality as a core program element. Crestwood is now one of the leading providers across California in promoting, training and implementing spiritual practices in treatment. Spirituality has been a foundational pillar in our recovery philosophy and we have been leaders in this area across the state. We believe it is our responsibility to inquire about, embrace, and support the spiritual lives of the people we serve. This includes individuals from diverse, multicultural communities, and people who are bilingual and monolingual. Spirituality and religion can be important components of recovery, and they have too often been overlooked, minimized, and many times labeled as pathology, leaving clients with little hope for themselves and their futures. At Crestwood, we provide an initial and ongoing inquiry as an integral part of our programs.
Zumba
Crestwood has recently added Zumba to our Mind, Body, and Spirit Initiative. Zumba was started in the 1990s blending aerobic exercise with infectious Latin dance music. It is now a worldwide phenomenon being done in 180 countries, with more than 15 million students taking classes. Zumba is an activity that sparks something deep inside a person’s spirit. That spark helps to energize our clients and staff members, helps to change their moods and their outlook on life. Not only does Zumba bring about physical changes in our clients and staff, it brings about mental and spiritual changes as well. Zumba can be a spark that starts with a simple routine of fun exercise, which then progresses into wanting to eat better, feel better, present one’s self better, and be more active in the world.
The Zumba program at Crestwood consists of having one or two staff members at each facility to be trained as Zumba instructors. These staff members then teach 3 to 5 classes a week for clients and staff at their facilities. There are also Zumba DVDs available to do additional Zumba classes or while trained staff is away.