TGIF - Thank God It's Friday

I love seeing patients.  I love helping and healing. I love listening and teaching and working one on one.  I loved working with groups as much too. 
Yet I've grown old.  I've been working the equivalent of three full time jobs for more than 35 years as a physician.  I began working part time at 16 and full time at 18.  I paid my own way through school working and  with scholarships.  I was denied a bursary because of my parents hard earned assets. I had to take some loans but not like the students today. I remember my parents both working from morning to night. My grandparents seemed to work even harder.  So I've worked.  Along time.  At very difficult jobs. 
Einstein said Genius was 99% perspiration 1% inspiration.
I am today tired at the end of the day.  Really tired. My body aches and my mind doesn't seem to want to concentrate on anything.  It wasn't but a few years ago I did two evenings a week of night school for years to eventually obtain an M.Div or Master of Arts in Theology, whichever way you want to call it.  In addition I have always done hours a week of medical and psychiatric reading directly related to my clinical work.  Lots of journals and searches. Lots of books specific to cases. Lots of neurochemistry, neurology , psychopharmacology and psychotherapy training. Years of applied formal study, writing and course attendance beyond my already advanced subspecialty training (12 years of post high school education and several more medical certifications).
This evening and weekend work boggles my mind today. I don't know where I found the energy.  I am exhausted by the end of my day.  I am up at 7 am and have a commute from Burnaby to Vancouver that fluctuates between 1/2 hour to 1 1/2 hour depending on city administration. 
At work my patients are collectively angry at me for  'running late'.  I am on call 24 hours seven days a week and have been most of the 30 years of work as a physician. Many years I was called into hospitals or clinics. For years I did home visits and answered emergency calls night and day. Now and for some years I rarely have to leave my home. I can answer most questions over the phone.  There's advantages to being in a big city but the generalist -specialist system in the province broke many years ago.  Every patient was supposed to have that Rockwell Painting Family Physician.  Now the patients I see so often are without a physician. They go to walk in clinics where the relationships they have with their doctors is less than they have with their shoe salesman. More often than not as a subspecialist, I'm doing specialist and generalist work.  More often than not I know my patients more than any other doctor.  That's supposed to be the job of the high paid generalists. Meanwhile they're just trying to manage the declining value of their education and their increasing costs of being any physician.
I have had 3 marriages.  Two of the those marriages I was the caregivers of sick wives with sick parents for half of the two ten year stretches with professionals.  I never escaped from work.  All day with depressives and all night and weekend with depressives grieving.  They were over worked and over tired  physicians too and suffered caregiver burden. I was going from work to home work to work.  I suffered 2 divorces in which I was blamed and condemned and punished and humiliated and ostracized and brutalized by society, women and the courts despite the fact that I'd actually entered Canadian marriages, one of the least attractive arrangements for men in all the world comparatively, three times.  Three times I made a commitment and did my utmost best to keep it and failed like 50 % of society who do marry as increasingly most don't.  I could have done better.   The majority of Canadians don't. I lasted 10 years at a time. Most marriages these days only make it to 5 years.  The blessed 30% of society that have long term marriages are rarely 'dual income no kids'.  The women mostly have children and the men are mostly better off financially. They're commonly associated with a strong faith and community support and have parents who stay together and are supportive. My parents stayed together, a loving hard working couple. I married women who came broken marriages with angry mothers or fathers who drank too much. My wives and I drank too much. A lot of Canadians drink too much.  Those who do have a much higher incidence of divorc.
Today men eschew marriage and sharing of their assets since the  great pillage of the 80's and 90's when Canadian women were called the 'best housekeepers in the world' because 'they always got the house.  They also got the children mostly and men collectively were called 'rapists' and 'dead beat dads'.  When men weren't being ridiculed and shamed as a 'class' and as a 'group' they were being told about their 'entitlement' going back generations.
Yet men had shared their work and wages with women and their children collectively.  When women became principal earners collectively they cared for their children but rarely cared for the man as well. A large proportion of the Yuppie women took their high earnings and lived the life they had disparaged in the 'playboy' man, themselves now the 'play woman' enjoying owning their own homes, travel alone or with groups, and some even hiring male prostitutes ('companions') or flaunting their younger (boytoys).   Hugh Hefner is scandalized while the Kardasians and Mila Cyrus are eulogized.  Penthouse letters were scandal whereas Harlequin romance became racy and '50 shades of grey" was the new female Story of O, a Babarella for the girls who celebrated the 'independence' of Hanoi Jane. 
I just went to work. As physicians, male and female, we talk about missing out on whole decades of cultural phenomena.  50% of my class were female doctors.  As male and female doctors collectively had the equivalent of 2 or 3 jobs. Among ourselves we noted that fewer women went into the tough heavy lifting of surgery with it's increased income and more went into psychiatry with it's light lifting flexibility.  None of us except perhaps the government doctors worked an actual one job equivalent.  All of us did the equivalent work in hours alone of 2 full time jobs and some of three full time jobs.  A full time union job is 30 to 40 hours a week.  They have weeks of vacation leave, maternity leave, and sick time.  We have consistently been recorded as working 60 to 80 hours and some of us  100 to 120.  In private practice this is direct patient contact.  We don't have paid leave. We don't have time off. We don't have maternity leave. We don't have sick leave. In public practice the 40 hours may well be half committee and administration.  I saw the least number of patients ever when I worked in government.
By contrast in private practice I'm running a business with increasing demands and costs and frankly given the hours I put into the work I've never made 'minimum' wage. Recently an MD MBA doctor in Ontario published his 2 year experience as a physician in private practice and closed his office and concluded that at most he made $25 an hour and couldn't foresee paying off his education debt working as a clinician.   I've made a half million gross one year but at the end of day I'd lived my work. I'd done the higher risk and most horrendous work a doctor could do.  I'd made myself ill with the stress of trying to meet the demand of patient ever ducking from the bullets shot at our backs by the administration and ministries.  They all 'lead' from behind like the Russian did in WWII shooting in the back anyone who faltered.  Medicine doesn't collectively have an advanced administrative model.  There are platitudes and laws  upon laws and pretty graphs and lying paper work but at the end of the day it's a very 'toxic workplace'.  Hospitals are apparently worse given the high turn over of staff.  All the surveys of medical 'well being' and 'job satisfaction' suck for front line workers.  The government and administration doctors and the high paid doctors who do some kind of lucrative 'procedural' medicine fair better.
More hours for me aren't like union jobs  with time and a half or double time , the work I did was lost to staff and overhead and increasing costs of work till at the end of the year I took home what a worker my age makes for a 40 hours job.  I'd worked over a 120 hours a week in high stress work. though.  My life has been threatened repeated. I've been attacked.  I've had psychopaths make false allegations and lying complaints that have cost me unmeasurably. I've caught deadly diseases and done things and seen things that wake me in the night screaming with horrible nightmares. I did not ever 'cherry pick' my practice.  I just did the work, serving where I saw the greatest need.
Like most people,men and women, who work, I've benefitted from my work. I've had houses and travel and vehicles and outward signs of success in some ways.  But I'm unable to own a house in Vancouver. I've bought houses and been an indentured servant to the mortgage, having no money but paying a mortgage instead of a rent and at the end of the day having 'no rights' with regard to my property, as opposed to houses in other parts of the world. Then there was property tax and a general sense that the whole home ownership 'scam' wasn't what it was like when my dad bought a home which profited him to own and he could do what he wanted on his property without police invasion or being accountable for people hurting themselves on his property.
I ve watched the corruption in society move from gambling and sex trades into construction with the Charbonneau Enquiry confirming what we all thought, that the Bikers and Mafia controlled the city and the construction industry was more corrupt than the sex trade.
I have sat year after year as I saw one person after another ruined by the corrupt system. Everyone pays exorbitantly to protect ourselvesfrom such horrors but the protection units and insurance agencies seems mainly there to collect money.  Taxes have skyrocketed as services have declined.
These generalization seem the stuff of hell. My perception is the half filled glass versus the half empty glass but I'm looking around at those who were criminals and those who took the easy road and those who shirked and I'm still working and still paying for them.
I have this sense, wrongly no doubt, that I am carrying the world on my shoulders and the fear that after all these years of working and being taxed more than 50 % , there's not going to be a bed for me to die quietly in , hopefully with my boots on.  I think horses are better treated than the working Canadians since they can be put out to pasture while physicians all around me live without a pension. Our government colleagues and those who got out of patient care did the smart business moves and got into the big buck jobs and the big pensions.  But the rest of us who saw the patients and did the heavy lifting, since the 'frontlines' are where the horror is, in medicine and in war, we had to rely on RRSP's but the economy collapsed twice and around me 70 year old doctors are selling their houses and returning to work because they lost their shirts in the financial collapse. Those with pensions were protected by the government and their problems buffered.
Those government politicians with 'trustfunds' and questionable morals and ethics did best of course.
Comparison is what ails me.  I compare myself with those doctors who see a dozen patients a week or attend one or two clinics a week.  The Quebec doctors objected to having a mandatory number of patients of 15 or 20 a day. I saw 30 a day when I was a family physician, sometimes a hundred a day in crisis, and as a psychiatrist it's not uncommon for me to see 15 to 20 people a day though theoretically I'm booked  only 8 to 10 hours a day.
I don't leave the office till 6 or 7 most nights, sometimes 8, rarely have lunch, sometimes eating a sandwich talking with a patient, don't get the requisite 10 minutes between patients or the 15 minutes to write notes and never the 15 or 30 minute coffee breaks.
And other than the thanks from my patients I am subjected to constant criticism.  I am in every way 'guilty until proven innocent', vulnerable and tired.
I'm tired. I go home at night exhausted and often look forward to dying to get away from the constant criticism. No doctor in Canada is 'good enough'.  There is no security.  I am not perfect yet there is an industry of lawyers and bureaucrats who are suboptimal at all levels who demand that the front line workers have a standard higher than any of theirs.  They hypocrisy is stifling.
Then i talk to my colleague in the army.  For every soldier who is in frontline combat there are 100 people making a profit from his sacrifice.  He is the lowest paid.  He has the highest risk.  He is lucky if he is killed by the enemy.  One third of soldiers are killed by 'friendly fire'.  One third are killed by the grossest incompetence of their superiors.  "Charge of the Light Brigade." "A Bridge Too Far".  Hitler sending the Germans to Russia without overcoats.  The list goes on. I laugh. My friend who is a psychiatrist in the American military answer to a little Napoleon of a social worker who knows bugger all about anything.  She has me in tears with her stories of this puffed up cock of the walk.  I talk to a wise man, one of the mentors and guru priests/ministers I lean on.  He reminds me that I'm 'worrying about the future'.  Of course I know God is in the present.  If I'm angry and irritable it's probably a fear or a resentment. Resentments are in the past. Fears are in the future.  If I get myself clearly in the day then I'm in the NOW and being in the NOW means I've WON> It's called the PRESENT because it's a gift of god.
My lawyer mind makes a case for 'poor me' and the judge mind compares me with all those selectively who seem to be getting a free lunch.  I describe the middle class in Canada as those who are carrying 2 blue collar babies under each arm and have a couple of white collar babies sitting on their backs while they're the only ones trudging along. Keep on trekking, we say.
And my military friend makes me laugh.  And when I'm whining as I'm prone to do I know all I have to do is throw my shoes into the pile of humanities and most likely despite searching through them all I'll take back those that fit me.  Other's successes come with their failures.  I'm got to stop comparing my insides with other's outsides.
God is good all the time. I have to accept this and have faith and surrender to his will and what he wants for me.  I am a worker and I have worked.  I have pulled my weight and them some.  Those who haven't are the first to criticize.  I find that the more I talk with others who have been there the less cognitive dissonance I feel. The more gratitude I have the better I feel.  There is so much more I have to be thankful for. I really must cultivate more gratitude.
TGIF - Thank God It's Friday!!!!!

New Year's Eve, 2012 - Personal Highlights and Gratitude

This is a glorified gratitude list. It will not encompass everything by any means. First and foremost I am thankful for my family. My brother and sister in law have been the greatest people in my life. I am so thankful to have spent time with father before he died and to share time with my brother's family, my nephews, Graeme, Andrew and Allan. I am thankful for all the friends I've been blessed to know. I won't name them as for sure I'd regretfully leave someone out. My 60th birthday party was a reflection of the fact that I am loved despite myself and to my own surprise. I am thankful for my wonderful staff at the time Joanne, Aim and Elizabeth and those who helped, like Laura and Graham, in making my birthday the best since my space cadet birthday my mother put on for me when I was 11 or 12 and Kirkie and Garth were my best friends and NASA was literally out of this world. I am especially thankful for my work, my patients, the other doctors involved in my patients care and all the caregivers that surround us working independently and interdependently in the front lines of health care, especially mental health care and addiction medicine. I've really enjoyed working with my fellow doctors and the staff at Doc-side. I'm so thankful for Joanne finding Hannah my new staff who replaced her. Gilbert is just thankful that all the staff love him as do the patients.
 I am thankful to have been an expert witness in the supreme court and having had the good fortune to meet mostly very fine and amazing judges as well as work with really very impressive lawyers. I am thankful for the psychologists, nurses and OT's plus all the others specialists I've been honoured to know.
I am thankful for my study of the spanish language. I'm thankful for all those who inspire me with their bilingualism and multilingualism. I loved studying medical spanish in El Salvador last year and the privilege to fly to that country and interact with the wonderful Salvadoran people in another paradise of sun and beach. I loved scuba diving jungle zip lining and bird watching. I am thankful for my trips to Ottawa this last year. I am forever thankful for IDAA and the conference this year in Orlando, the chance to see my yearly friends who we keep in contact through email with during the year but have a week of deeply spiritual time and so much laughter. I'm thankful that on my return to visit my dad in Ottawa weather delayed the plane so I had a night in New York and could visit Manhatten again and finally seen the Stonewall Pub. I loved blogging,williamhaywriter.
I am thankful for sole dinners with George and conversations of poetry and spirituality.
George has been a Godsend these last 15 years. I am thankful for dinners with John and conversations of analysis and spirituality. John has been a godsend these last 15 years.
I am so thankful for Gilbert, the cockapoo and all his friends.
I am thankful for the eventual sale of my side car motorcycle and the buying of my Mazda Miata. Laura, Gilbert and I had wonderful weekend drives down to Portland and the north coast of Washington. I am
 thankful for the S.V. Giri and the weekend trips Laura, Gilbert and I took to English Bay, Bowen Island and the wonderful long weekend at SaltSpring for the annual round up and lamb roast. That was a great event with a lot of fun getting caught up with friends. I am thankful to Lyle and the friends I meet with weekly at the Dug Out.

I am so thankful for St. James Anglican Church and Father Mark Greenaway-Robbins. Father Mark has created a marvellous church community and I'm glad to be a part of it thanks to Christ Church, my former church community, outlawing Gilbert the dog despite him being blessed by the Bishop, and a hard working therapy dog. The people of St. James have made us both welcome and that's so important.

I am thankful for the SV Giri and the Blue Water Cruising Association and friends I 've made in the boating world like Eric and James and Louis.

I am thankful for the Ford F350 Truck and Rockwood RV and the times I've enjoyed this. This year we were fortunate to have fun with the Clipper Canoe too
I'm thankful to Kirk for telling me about the leash free dog walk I found about a year after he did though I never disbelieved his story of dog Shangrila. Gilbert and I have so enjoyed this walk ever since. Kirk has been a friend since 5 and that is still amazing to me.

I am so thankful for the great hunts with Tom and Luke, despite our only killing grouse and one rabbit. Amazing all the years Tom and I've known each other sailing across an ocean, driving across Canada together and now being in a cattle round up. So much of the fun in the company and I think the killing of he old rusted farm implement with a great barrage of shots by Luke and Tom and I at many targets will remain one of the greatest target hunts in my life. We did see deer and moose but someone tipped them off about our ill intentions.
 It was great to meet Laura's cousin after years of hearing stories about her. Fun to canoe and fish too though I never caught any fish. Tom and I loved being in the cattle round up, Laura, Gilbert and I enjoyed finding another great RV park at Moonshadow in Merrit. I was thankful that Dad's death was as quick as it was though he'd had a hard winter before. I loved that I was able to spend good time with him and that we had a last visit in summer. It was good to be with my brother Ron at Dad's death and appreciate how remarkably competent he can be in very difficult times. I love my brother and sister in law so much more because of the love and care I saw them have for the old people and how much love they have for family. I am thankful for the Canadian Authors Association meetings, friends, publishing my poetry in National Voices, and for electing me a member at large to the Executive. I loved attending the Vancouver writing events and hearing friends reading.

I am thankful for my multicultural friends, especially the people of Saipan I continue in contact with, the Chomorro, Filipinos, and those here especially the East Indian and Chinese, as well as the various ethnic groups that give this country such diversity though I love more and more what I learn of the deepest contribution of my own heritage the Scottish and Irish people. I loved the THIRD DAY Concert in Langley. Third Day have been the greatest Christian rock band and I've spent years enjoying their inspirational music. Now I'm loving Serius Satellite Message programs where I hear them too. I am thankful for social media keeping me in touch not just family and friends in general but people like Wes and classmates  from Vincent Massey High School.
 I am thankful for Harrison Hot Springs and the good relaxing times I've had there. I'm grateful for all the great wild game meals I had this year, especially Laura's elk hash. I've loved the venison and elk roasts and grouse too. I loved the great uplifting plays and performances at Pacific Theatre. I loved the creativity and genius of BC Ballet. I've loved Mac and the computers and iPhone and Ipad and Nikon cameras.
 I am thankful for Seattle, Pike Market, the Alexis Hotel, the Sorrento, Trinity Episcopal Church and most recently Christmas there.
I am so thankful to be able to travel, this year to Greece, visiting the Acropolis, Knossos Crete, Delphi and the Meteora Monasteries. of

 


I am thankful to be a Canadian, a voter and contributor and a member of a political party while too many think  'criticism' is sufficient contribution. I am amazed by the leadership of all the organizations I've belonged to, the difficulty of the jobs, the sacrifice of the leaders and the great character and accomplishments of those individuals even when I disagree with them personally. Despite my own criticism I know Deifenbaker, Pearson, Troudeau, Mulroney, Martin, Campbell, Turner, Chretien and Harper are truly incredible people who have given this country so much with there hard work and genius.
I am thankful for love , relationship and Jesus, school, church, work, business, medicine, law, play and all that goes into the community and it's organizations and those who maintain them in this great garden we share as home, this universe in the multiverse.

Thanks for God even for my enemies because their deficiencies have made me realize how rich my friends are in character and love. I am thankful for their immaturity and stupidity because it really shows me how mature and intelligent my closest friends are. I struggle with Thy Will Be Done but Thy Will Be Done Lord. The more I follow you the better my life is Lord. Thank you for all the highlights of this year.

Harbourview Dog Park

Gilbert's favourite dog park in North Vancouver is Harbourview We don't get there nearly as often as he would like but when we do go it's always a perfect time. There's usually a few to a half dozen bums to sniff and all kinds of trees to piss on. Gilbert runs free and I walk behind carrying the poop bags. It's exercise for me, walking, stooping and scooping and a joy to see Gilbert so happy. He puts in long days at the office. I'm so thankful when I find the time during the week to let him run free. His weekend's on the docks or out in the woods are the stuff dogs dream of. His work week though can be gruelling and demanding. He is much among people and little with his own kind. As a pet therapist he finds people just don't get that throwing a tennis ball is the very best way to relieve stress. He works hard training humans to enjoy play. It's a pleasure for me seeing him playing with other dogs and running free through the sacred woods of the city.

Jake's Gift

Jake's Gift is playing at Pacific Theatre (www.pacifictheatre.org) Hemlock and 12th. Written and performed by Julia Mackey with Director Dirk Van Strallen and Lighting Designer Gerald King.  The story is of a French girl meeting an elderly Canadian WWII vet who has returned to the 60th Anniversary remembrance on the Juno Beach landing.  He was one of three brothers who fought there, 2 survived, one was left on the beach. It is a survivor's story. A story of remembrance and regeneration.  I wasl rivetted to my seat  by the extraordinary acting and transformation in this moving one woman show.  At then end, the standing ovation, silenced the sobs and sniffles.  It seemed we were all crying.  Tears of sadness. Tears of gratitude. Tears of joy.  As we left we saw an white haired man wipes his eyes.  It was only last month I breakfasted with my father and his 3 friends, all WWII vets, air force, army and navy. I believe they all would have liked this play.   Julia Mackey honoured them with  her writing and her remembering.  I would recommend it to all who have like Canadians been touched by war.
http://members.shaw.ca/junobeach/index.htm
http://www.junobeach.org/main.html

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, a play by Stephen Adly Guirgis was presented last night at the Pacific Theatre. A guest production by Glass City Theatre, it runs from March 11 to April 2.  This is deeply moving, exhilerating and disturbing play about justice and prison. Robert Oguin played prisoner Angel Cruz whose favourite response is "I don't know' or 'maybe' at the opening of the play. .  Carl Kennedy played prisoner, Lucius Jenkins, recovered coke and heroin addict, serial murderer, born again Christian.  Andrew McNee played the unbelieving sadistic guard Valdez.  Evan Frayne plays the believing compassionate guard. Kerri Norris played Mary Jane Hanrahan, idealistic disillusioned lawyer who believes there's got to more than 'legal justice'. Producer Michael Wipf and Director Angela Konrad.  This 2 part play was packed. The actors received standing ovations and curtain calls for their outstanding performance. Every wavering or certain Christian and everyone in recovery needs to see this play.

What is mental health?

Freud summarized mental health as the ability to love and work. The WHO definition is a bout a page long and essentially says the same with the addition of 'play'.
The definition I use then is that Mental Health is the ability to love, work and play.
Love was best defined in a little book called the Art of Loving by Erich Fromm.  In that book he summarized the development of the thinking about love over history separating falling in love or lust from standing in love or adult love.

Love is not a scientific term. The term "attachment" is the word used in research for our principal relationships.  These first refer to the relationships we have with our parents and brothers and sisters and extended family, blood relations.  The term love also refers to our relationships with friends and others less closely related to us in our  community. It's that whole emotional interconnected world of relationships that at it's highest has been described ideally as our relationship with our 'higher power' or God, for lack of a better word.  As well given the golden rule of "love your neighbour as yourself" or "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", it refers to our love of ourselves in the healthiest sense of that.

Work refers primarily to our contribution to the community.  This is predominantly defined as work that in our society translates directly into money. The community as a whole attributes a monetary role to different work. Individually I may feel that my working on my guitar playing is 'work' however society has said by its basic reimbursement that it is willing to pay Keith Richards for this work but to date has never paid me enough that I could be self supporting.

Adults to the best of their ability cooperate in society and work to be self supporting.  Work is humbling in that it usually means service to another and doing what I might not necessarily want to do at any particular time.  Even great artists might rather run through the sprinkler than practice violin but if they did just that they would be less likely to succeed in their work.

Volunteer work is work which though like work doesn't get 'paid' but serves the community and involves cooperation and factors of reliability and responsibility. Philanthropy and charity are examples of volunteerism.  They are considered altruistic rather than narcissistic.

Self care is a kind of work.  To date communities have been loathe to pay for self care because it's a fine line between the basics of self care and self pampering.
In the area of work, subjectivity and objectivity are always an issue.  Tom Sawyer contains a story about work being made to be fun.  Work doesn't have to be painful but it's always inherrently a 'service' to others and 'valued' by community. Many a golfer would call what he is doing 'work', like those who 'play' on the computer or doodle.  They may even present a long face and seek to elicit pity from those around them. The word "billable hours" came to be used in the workplace to address "slackers" no matter what their story.

In contrast play is all that leisure entails.  It's part of a balanced life. It's rest and recreation.  Society doesnt' pay individuals to play though there has been a controversial movement in this direction with state bought call girls being supplied for the disabled in some european districts.  Workaholism has been idenfitied as such a 'disease' because it has a short shelf life and may lead to significant individual and community dysfunction. Even military studies show that a balance of work and leisure results in better productivity.

Mental illness is defined as dysfunction in work, social or leisure activity as a result of a predominantly mental or emotional or cognitive cause, Commonly physical illness is associated with accompanying mental illness. Often the physical illness presents as a depression or even a psychosis.  Addictions present at first a mental illness with work usually being last effected since it supplies the habit but eventually addiction will lead to a variety of physical illness.

Mental Health is also disease prevention.  WHO studies of longevity showed that people who lived longest worked and had a purpose in their community as a consequence of this contribution.  Isolation is associated with misery and those who are happiest have a close relationship with family and friends.  Maintaining friendships and family relationships often requires effort just like showering and doing laundry can appear onerous at times. This persistence in face of lack of immediate positive reinforcement is one of the positive psychological strengths that Seligman addresses in his studies of Authentic Happiness.
Leisure involves exercise. There are no obese people over 100 years of age.  Exercise and leaness, especially measured by waist size are associated with good health and longevity.  Longevity without quality of life isn't a particularly attractive destination.  The Nun studies showed that those who were least likely to develop dementia were those who remained socially interactive and continued to learn and participate in community.

Mental health isn't all that much different from overall 'health' and certainly good physical health depends to a large degree on the recognition of the interaction between body and mind.
Psychosomatic medicine is the modern and postmodern approach to all disease that says that body and mind aren't separate but work together.  The toe bone is connected to the head bone. Good physical health and good mental health work together contributing to each other.